


Tell me that you feel the same (I love only you)

by Anomiac



Series: Anomiac Carmilla collections [3]
Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Angst, One Shot Collection, catmilla
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-04-21
Packaged: 2019-03-13 18:02:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 40
Words: 35,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13575996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anomiac/pseuds/Anomiac
Summary: A collection of Carmilla one shots! How original :)Originally posted on Wattpad under "Someday I'm gonna be with you'





	1. "How can you politely tell someone..."

**Author's Note:**

> There is cursing. Cause I just gotta.

"How can you politely tell someone to push you against a wall and make out with you"

 

**Set in a** _**'Not Everything is Fucked (except Laura)'** _ **AU**

_Tags: Making out, Fluff, Walls_

 

Despite my ritual of making a wish every day at 11:11 PM and AM for the school to be over-run by some evil Angler fish -- which a certain broody someone continually made fun of — exam day continued to taunt me day after day until, finally, it arrived.

It's the third day of exams and I am officially a zombie.

I didn't think my brain could handle my first exam, let alone three after that, so by the third day I don't even bother to act like a human being as I trudge back to my dorm room.

"Oh, Hello Laura," Perry says in her usual chipper-but-concerned voice. She follows me into my dorm room where I, a tiny gay blonde, fall face first into the comfort square and groan. "You look very exhausted. Why don't you take a nap?"

I only give a grunt in response.

I hear Perry walk away but remain face-planted into the bed despite not being able to breathe very well and my nose being scrunched into my face uncomfortably. My brain is too worn out to care, or to tell my muscles to move. Literature kicked my ass.

It wouldn't have been so bad if I had been able to keep  _her_  off my mind. I know how to write, and I've been working very hard all semester long with no distractions getting in my way except, of course, the unexpected roommate change. All my hard work seemed to go down the drain after my nice, intelligent roommate, Betty Speilsdorf, transferred and got replaced by a 5'3" jerk-face in leather named Carmilla Karnstein.

I'm tired, okay? I can't come up with good insults when I'm tired. Just keep reading.

I could deal with her annoying comments just fine. It wouldn't have been that bad if she had just stopped there, but she didn't. Every morning she was broody, and annoying, and every afternoon she stole my pillow even though she already has plenty of pillows on her own bed. She never cleans up after herself, either, and most of all she destroyed the chore wheel I spent a full day making!

It was a wonder, and a horrific revelation, when one day I realized that I started to find all of her annoying and hair-pulling qualities endearing. After the sixth time Carmilla stole my pillow, I didn't even mind. And it only got worse after that. She became less of a jerk-face in leather and more of a... gorgeous... jerk-face in leather. With a jawline, and lips like... like...

So exhausted I can barely move, how do you expect me to come up with something original?

I hear footsteps approaching again and I sigh, assuming it's Perry with a cup of hot chocolate or something. For the past few months Perry has been my go-to with all my Carmilla talk, because LaFontaine would probably try to make me ask her out. I've gotten used to just saying whatever I feel in front of her, surprisingly. You wouldn't think Perry would be so cool about me, a wholesome little cinnamon roll, talking about stuff like this.

"How do I politely tell Carmilla to push me against a wall and make out with me?" I ask Perry. The footsteps stop abruptly and then silence and a stifled laugh, which I only barely hear, but it sounds like sirens going off in my head.

Holy Hogwarts. That's not Perry, is it?

Please let that be Perry. Or a raccoon! Hell, let it a be a horse for all I care!

"I think you just did, Cupcake," a smirking voice says behind me.

Mental face palm x1000

At least I'm wide awake now. Quickly I turn over so I'm sitting on the bed to see Carmilla at the desk where I have spent many hours this semester filming my videos for the campus news program. She's leaning on it with her arms crossed over her chest and that cocky smirk on her face like it always is. If I could just-  ** _Breathe_** ,  _Hollis._ Now isn't the time.

"Did what?" I say quickly, clearing my throat and running a hand through my hair to the back of my neck. The brunette rolls her eyes and that smirk briefly turns into a smile.

"You know what." I stand up at that, and cross my arms to mirror hers. Carmilla's eyebrows quirk with the challenge, and before I know it she's right in front of me, and my back is slammed into the tall dresser behind us. It's almost painful with the door handle digging into my back, but it's easily ignored when my legs are wrapped around Carmilla's waist and our faces are only inches apart with breath mingling in the space between our lips, urging us closer.

Holy Dumbledore, I never expected this.

"Is this what you wanted?" She whispers as she tilts her head, our noses rubbing together in possibly the best eskimo kiss ever as she leans closer.

_Yes, It is, and a thousand times more than that._

The first kiss is searing, and i'm not entirely sure who closed the distance, but it's clear neither of us regret it. After months and months of pining and secret desperation I am finally able to run my fingers through her hair. Our lips move together like burning waves, which is really hard to explain, but I promise there is no better way to say it. My brain is back to its happy state of not being able to function correctly as she captures my bottom lip between her teeth and pulls on it before she kisses me again. I try, and fail, not to gasp.

"I- Carmilla, I'm-" _I need you, I'm tired of beating around the bush._

"Laura," Carmilla says against my lips.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up," she says and she kisses harder this time, her hands running up my sides until one is cupping the side of my face and her tongue is flicking against the roof of my mouth making me shiver from anticipation, or from I don't know what, but it feels amazing and that's all that matters right now.

And if I remember hearing two shocked gasps and Perry whispering "Don't look, dear," before the sound of a door closing, then I'll just have to blame it on me being drunk on Carmilla's lips.

.


	2. The one where Laura gets jealous for no reason

**Set in a '** **_none of the conflict that happened in the series mattered_ ** **' AU**

_Tags: Hollstein, Laf is a genius, Jealous Laura, Sciency_

 

Laura shouldn't be so angry right now, given that she knew what she signed up for when she started dating a 337 year old vampire. She knew going in that Carmilla had a few centuries worth of experience more than she does, so it shouldn't bother her hearing about Carmilla's ex girlfriends, but it does.

Well, just one of them, to be precise.

The thing is when Carmilla talks about her past, it's with a sour expression, like she just bit into a lemon. Her eyebrows furrow in concentration trying to remember all the details correctly. Laura could watch her for hours that way, comforting her through the more painful stories. Elle. Her stories always bring a pained expression to Carmilla's face. But this one story isn't bitter at all, she's practically swooning here in bed next to Laura with a soft smile on her lips. Laura would be lying if she said she didn't feel extremely jealous of a girl who is long dead.

"When was this again?"

"The end of the 18th century... 1799, maybe. Just before Napoleon rose to power. And she never was my girlfriend. I barely even learned her name. I never saw her again after-"

"After she ravaged you in a dark alley," Laura finishes bitterly, wrapping her arms tighter around Carmilla's waist and burying her face in her shoulder to somehow hide how immature and petty she feels.

"I tried to ravage her first. She's lucky she made it out alive."

The vampire turns her head to look at her, and Laura tries to keep her breathing steady and even... completely forgetting the obvious.

Her vampire girlfriend is, obviously, a vampire and can probably hear how fast her heart is beating from a mile away.

"Hey, Laura," Carmilla says, and Laura can imagine that her girlfriend's soft eyes are full of concern or guilt, but when she finally looks up at her she only sees adoration. "I don't need 'spidey senses' to be able to tell that something is bothering you"

"It's nothing..." Laura starts, trying to stall for as long as she can, but one more glace into Carmilla's eyes renders her helpless. The dark-haired girl raises one perfect eyebrow and her demeanor has Laura caving. She wonders how on earth she could ever doubt Carmilla's loyalty, or that she loves her wholeheartedly (or at least with everything she has).

"I'm just... " The last word gets muffled in Carmilla's shoulder, well hidden within thick dark hair that smells of cherry and some kind of herbal tea that Laura loves.

"You're what?" Laura releases a deep sigh and picks her head back up to meet Carmilla's eyes, or to try her hardest to meet her eyes. They're too intense to look at sometimes, and when Carmilla is deeply curious the intensity of her eyes quadruples. This time is no exception.

"I'm a little bit jealous," she admits reluctantly. After a while she looks up, hesitant to see the expression on her girlfriend's face, only to see Carmilla trying very hard not to laugh.

"Hey! You're laughing at me?!" And then Carmilla stops trying to hide it, letting laughter fall from her lips in silky waves that Laura would spend hours replaying in her head if it weren't for the fact that Carmilla was actually  _laughing_  at her!

Laura scoots away from Carmilla and turns her back toward her, not caring if she looks like a petulant child having a mild temper tantrum.

The laughter stops after a few more minutes and she feels two arms pull her back into an embrace by her waist. She lets them, and soon she's surrounded by everything Carmilla again. She's reluctant to admit that she feels infinitely better when she's close to her like this. It might be sappy, but that's the first time in a long time that Laura has been able to withhold from touching Carmilla for an extended period of time, and it lasted all of five minutes. Truly a world record in Laura's book.

"Hollis, you're telling me that you don't care about any of the other girls I've been with," she says with a hint of a chuckle in her tone while trailing her hand up Laura's side to her face, cupping it and turning her head so she can look Laura in the eyes, "like this... but you get jealous about one girl who kissed the living daylights out of me in an alley once over three centuries ago and then disappeared never to be seen ever again?"

Carmilla's intense, almost seductive gaze has her squirming, but with Carm's hands holding her in place, she is forced to maintain eye contact. She feels silly.

"Well, when you put it like that, yes! The way you look when you talk about her is... different."

"Different how?"  _Different_ how _? Different how. Well ,for starters you're only supposed to look at_ me _like that._

"It's," she pauses to take a breath, "like how you look at me."

Carmilla grazes Laura's cheek with her thumb and smirks, glancing down at Laura's lips and back to her eyes as she leans infinitesimally closer, "what happened centuries ago doesn't change how I feel about you, Laura. If anything, it makes me cherish you more. I can't let you get away."

At this, Carmilla's grip tightens around her almost possessively. If it were anyone else, any other vampire, maybe she would have run out of the room in fear; but this is Carmilla, and she doesn't want to lose her either.

"I can't change my past, but I can make sure you're in my future. That's all I want," Carmilla says softly. The blonde's heart melts at her words as she connects their lips in a soft kiss that lasts for what feels like lifetimes, but still isn't enough. And later that same night when they're both relaxed and sated, tangled in each other and slowly drifting off, she hugs Carmilla closer feeling reassured that the love of her life isn't going to somehow invent a time machine to go back three centuries to find some girl when they have each other. Right here, right now.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

"YOU DID _WHAT_?!"

"I invented a time machine."

"WHAT?!"

"A. Time. Machine," Lafontaine says loud and clear. They pick up a clipboard from the table in their lab and walk over to a big contraption that somehow looks like a mix between Falkor from The Neverending Story and a BMW. She's only slightly disappointed that there isn't a blue police box in front of her right now. "Whatever happened to listening?" They continue as they check things off the list and pace around, "What, you got a vampire girlfriend and suddenly we lesser humans aren't good enough for you anymore?"

"I'm sorry, Laf, I'm having a bit of a- a hard time understanding. You just... invented a time machine. Just like that?" Laura's mind is going a million miles a minute and she can't figure out whether to be excited, scared, or intrigued. Being able to go forward or backward in time... That's something everyone has wanted at least once in their life. And one of her best friends invented it all by themselves! What the hell?

"No. Well, not just like that. It took about fifty tries to perfect it, but the last trip I made was perfect. I made gay marriage legal in all fifty states in the U.S.!" Laf says with a grin on their face.

"So... how does it work?" she asks, trying to tamp down her anxiety. Laf launches into a complicated explanation that, for the readers sanity, and to save time -- because oh how time is such a valuable resource in a world in which time machines don't yet exist -- basically means that time is a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey... stuff.

Last night she was relieved that the past was in the past, but now time machines exist! The past is clearly not in the past anymore!

So maybe if she did a little bit of meddling...

"Can I try it out?" she asks, quickly forming a plan of action in her head. Her Veronica Mars days aren't over quite yet. She still as some investigative passion thrumming in her heart. Laf seems to like this idea, because soon enough she's standing inside the Falkor-BMW time machine thing and Laf is telling her to hold onto something as they push a series of buttons in an order that looks way too complicated to be memorized.

Sooner rather than later, she's thrown to the ground with a force strong enough to straighten out the leaning tower of Pisa. She didn't actually think it would work... but when she looks up she sees horses and big wooden houses and tons of people walking in the street with the exception of a few carriages every now and then.

She's in 18th century France. Lafontaine  _actually_  built a time machine!

Surprisingly, it doesn't smell as bad as she thought it would, other than the faint scent of menuer in the air. Also the people don't look entirely filthy, and most of them are dressed nicely in fancy clothes.

She has to remind herself that her Harry Potter T-shirt probably wouldn't go over very well with these people. She's practically naked compared to them!

She steps out of the Alley-way she finds herself in and scans the crowd to maybe, possibly, find the beautiful dark-haired woman she's been sharing her nights with for the past four years. It's not her, though. She has to remind herself. She's going to be very different from the Carmilla she knows, and she's only here to stop her from kissing that girl.

She hopes she's not too late.

Laura feels her eyes on her before she sees her. Across the street, dressed in black from head to toe with a dark glint in her eye. She's staring directly at Laura, and even though this Carmilla is a lot younger and less experienced she still has that same effect on Laura whenever she sees the intensity in those dark eyes.

She backs up into the alley and leans against the wall, her heart beating too fast for her to keep up with.  _Breathe, Hollis._

"Bonjour mon chéri" a sultry voice calls out from the mouth of the alley, and Laura knows who it is without having to look up because that's the same voice that wakes her up in the mornings, and talks about her day to her, and says things that drive her crazy.

(Judging by the sharp twist in her abdomen, she also might have a thing for people speaking French, or just Carmilla speaking it)

It's the same voice, but it's not the same person. She's here on a mission.

"Um, parlez vous anglais?" she responds shakily, unsure if she's even saying the right thing. It's a relief when Carmilla- Past Carmilla takes another meandering step toward her where she leans against the wall and nods.

"Yes, I speak English. Who are you?"

"Oh, hey, I'm L- I'm Hermione. Hermione Granger... of Gryffindor."

"Hello, Hermoine. I am Mircalla Karnstein. Of Styria." She has a lightness to her voice that Laura's so used to and it helps calm her nerves. But only for a second, because before she can blink Carmil- Mircalla is right in front of her, and she has Laura's hands pinned beside her head.

_This isn't what I expected to happen when I ate my chocolate chip cookies this morning._

"Now formalities are out of the way, let us get to the fun part," Mircalla practically growls as she flashes her fangs and presses her harder against the wall. And this is the part where she's supposed to be scared out of her wits, right?

Except she's really not. Not when she's this close, and now when she can see the hesitance in Mircalla's eyes. Mircalla is so much like Carmilla already, and that's what makes her start to smile uncontrollably, leaving the ravenous vampire utterly confused and wondering if maybe she's lost her scare factor.

It's too adorable for Laura, seeing the badass vampire question herself like she's lost all meaning in life by not being able to scare someone. Mircalla's grip on her wrists losen. Her eyebrows are furrowing and she has the lemon-face that she knows so well.

Maybe that's what pushes her to lean forward and kiss her. She didn't plan on it, and didn't even realize it was happening until she felt the softness of the other girl's lips against her own, but just like that, she understands  _everything_.

She was jealous of herself the whole time

The tiny blonde realizes that there was never anyone else that Carmilla could talk about with that silly blissful look on her face. It was always her. It's always been her, even when it was Elle.

And the realization seems to kickstart Mircalla into action. She kisses back forcefully, pinning Laura against the wall once more. Carmilla would be more gentle, Laura knows.

Mircalla's tongue demands entrance, and Laura gives it easily, gasping at the roughness of the other girls actions, and the shear eagerness with which she does them.

Laura is helpless against the vampire, but she knows nothing bad is going to happen so she deepens the kiss as best as she can, allowing Mircalla to do what she wants because Laura wants to be the one to give her beautiful girlfriend such an amazing kiss that she remembers it and smiles like an idiot even three hundred years later.

_Wait, am I cheating on my girlfriend with my girlfriend?_

That's the last cognizant thought she has before Mircalla, with her fangs back to their concealed state, breaks the kiss so Laura can breathe and begins biting and nipping down towards her neck, soothing them as she goes. She had just slotted a leg between Laura's thighs when suddenly Mircalla was thrown back against the opposite wall and Laura falls again, ripped away from Mircalla and the anticipation and thrown back into 2018, her teeth vibrating from the impact.

"Welcome back, Frosh! How was it?"

Laura, with kiss-swollen lips, briefly glares at Laf before she falls back against the floor breathing hard and trying to calm her heart.

"It went well... Thank you. Mission accomplished," she says as she attempts to catch her breath.

 

* * *

 

"How was your day, Laura?" Carmilla is sitting on the couch next to Laura, having just gotten home from the job she insisted on having in order to help out with rent for the apartment. Laura feels a flush creeping up her neck and clears her throat.

"Just fine. Yours?" She looks over at Carmilla who is looking at her neck. Maybe glaring is a better word.

"What's on your neck? Are those- bite marks? Have you-" Laura quickly tackles her so they're both laying on the couch with Laura on top of Carmilla. She covers the broody girl's mouth with her hand, not wanting to hear whatever Carmilla thinks may have happened.

"Laf built a time machine and I went back in time to 1799 and kissed you!" She says it so fast even she is surprised. Carmilla looks suspicious as she grabs at Laura's wrist to pry it from her mouth.

"Were you really so jealous that you had Laf build you a time machine just so you could go back to 1799 and-"

"Yes. Shut up. Sorry. Okay, yes. I can't lose you. I didn't order Laf to build it, they just kind of- they did it themselves and I didn't want you to go back in time to chase after that girl so I kind of went back to try and stop it from happening but-"

"But you're who I kissed in the first place," Carmilla realizes with a small smile, almost in awe, "It's always been you."

"Hermione Granger of Gryffindor at your service," she chuckles, glad that Carmilla isn't mad about her kissing Mircalla, even though technically they're the same person. Carmilla hums with a coy smile as she starts to remember the finer details of (technically) their first encounter.

"Mircalla Karnstein of Styria, here to be served," Carm answers as she lightly brushes her lips against Laura's before finally connecting them in a passionate kiss.

They both struggle to maintain the kiss because it's hard not to smile knowing their love is the kind that lasts centuries.

(Not edited sorry for any mistakes!)


	3. "I'm a fucking panther"

**Carm and Laura have been together for six years.**

_Tags: Hollstein, Tired Laura, Inspired by fanart_

 

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," she hears someone say from behind her. She turns around quickly to face the stranger; a tall heavy-set man with a big fuzzy beard and a stern expression which makes him look probably ten years older than he actually is, from Carmilla's estimation. He raises a thick finger to point to the band-aid under his left eye, "she got me real good a couple days ago. Might get you too if you get too close."

"So she's been here for a while," she states. Carmilla has seen the cat sitting on the dumpster by the gas station every day for the past week, only watching as people pass by, filling their tanks with gas and various snacks from the convenience store and then leaving, but if anything has rubbed off on Carmilla, it's Laura and her curiosity for the unknown. So this time, instead of getting in her car and leaving, Carmilla decides to make a visit.

She doesn't wait for the guy to respond, she just walks toward the cat, hearing a mumbled "your loss" from the man behind her. Every step closer leads her closer and closer to the cat, who stares at her with sharp, wary eyes with narrow pupils.

If anyone understands what it's like to be all alone with nobody to rely on, it's Carmilla -- she has 337 years as a vampire to attest to that.

The cat -- who is actually smaller than she expected her to be, which leads Carmilla to believe that maybe this is more of a kitten than a cat -- doesn't start hissing at her like she expected her to, but she remains sat on the dumpster and looking at Carmilla with an unwavering gaze. Maybe this kitty can sense Carmilla's inner feline nature. The thought doesn't sound exactly appealing to Carmilla, having been teased by Laura for her cat-like qualities for far too long.

Her fur is mostly black, with a few light markings on her sides and face. And despite the mats in her fur, this cat looks like she belongs in a house, but there's not collar to be found. With a sigh, Carmilla takes a final step toward the cat and reaches out her hand hesitantly, but does her best not to show her nervousness.

"Hello," Carmilla says to the her, moving her hand closer so the cat can sniff it. Part of her expects the cat to say hello back, but the cat simply mewls at Carmilla and bumps her head against her hand once in an affectionate manner. And Carmilla knows she's fucked up, because now she can't morally leave this cat here.

She's not some ferocious beast that attacks anyone that gets near her. She's a kitten who needs love an affection. What kind of person would Carmilla be if she left this cat here to starve, living on trash and undiluted filth?

She's made up her mind, and she doesn't care what Laura thinks. Nope!

It takes a minute more of her petting for Carmilla to feel comfortable enough to pick her up and take her to her car, all the while stroking the kitten's head. She hears the burly man mutter something about a "woman's touch" and barely restrains herself, but the warm bundle in her arms nudges against her tensed jaw and reminds her of what's important. Her anger deflates before she loses any control and she gets in the car with the kitten resting in her lap.

"I'm taking you home to meet my girlfriend Laura. Don't be offended if she hates you. She gets like that sometimes, but she doesn't mean it," Carmilla says quietly to the kitten in her arms as she takes the time to zip her jacket around the ball of fur so that she doesn't try to wonder around while Carmilla is driving.

\-- --

Carmilla's halfway home when she realizes that the kitten has fallen asleep curled up in a tiny ball in her lap, purring quite loudly. Laura  _has_  to love her.

\-- --

"Carmilla, I'm home!" Laura calls out as she shuts the door behind her and locks it. She had a long day at the news station today filling out paper work and investigating new stories to report on, and she's really been looking forward to coming home and cuddling up to her warm vampire girlfriend. An oxymoron maybe, but that doesn't make it any less true.

She sees the woman, or cat, in question trotting toward her and smiles wide.

"There you are," she says as she picks Carmilla up and hugs her to her chest. She's smaller than she remembered her, but she writes it off as being very exhausted. Even her teeth are tired. Carmilla purrs as Laura scratches behind her ear, which Laura learned on their fourth date to be a very sensitive spot for Carmilla. She makes sure to exploit it whenever she can.

"I hope you had a good day, because I certainly didn't. I think I'll throw up if I have to even so much as look at another sheet of paper." She continues talking about her day as she walks toward their bedroom, petting Carmilla's head absentmindedly. It wasn't often that she came home to Carmilla in cat form, but she isn't going to question it. Sometimes a cat needs to be a cat, and she wasn't going to take that away from her.

Also it's pretty fun to tease her about it constantly.

She stops dead in her tracks when she opens the bedroom door to see Carmilla in human form, standing at the dresser in front of a folded stack of blankets. She turns around when she hears the door hit the wall.

"Oh my  _god_!" Laura exclaims, holding the cat away from her and look at it in shock, "You're not Carmilla!!" The stranger cat looks at her blankly as it passively dangles in the air a foot away from the tiny blonde.

"Of course it's not  _me_! I'm a  _fucking_ _ **panther**_!" Carmilla storms over and takes the cat from Laura's hands and holds it close to her, her face turning red from embarrassment or maybe anger, Laura can't tell. She covers her face with her hands for a moment to give herself time to breathe and process the situation before she starts to laugh uncontrollably, sparing Carmilla no offense.

"To be honest, you're a pretty small panther, Carm," Laura says between fits of giggle. Carmilla only sighs and hugs the kitten closer, staring at Laura with one side of her mouth upturned in a small smile. Once she's gotten her laughter under control, she gently strokes that kitten's head and looks up at Carmilla with narrow eyes.

"And she has a name."

The vampire is silent for a few long moments before she looks away and nods. The blonde sighs, knowing how sensitive Carmilla can be when it comes to animals, especially after having lived with Laura for the past six years. She can't even count how many times she's had to comfort Carmilla after one of those ASPCA commercials with the injured and abused animals and that one song by Sarah McLachlan.

"Bagheera," she mummers, so unlike her usual confident self.

"Okay... I guess we have to keep her now." Carmilla's head turns so fast that Laura's concerned she'll break her neck, but the look on her girlfriend's face is priceless. She looks so hopeful with her love for Laura swimming in her eyes and her arms clutching Bagheera to her chest tighter. Laura smiles and pecks Carmilla on the lips softly.

"I love you."

She'll never be able to get enough of Carmilla's ridiculous schemes. What can she say... Carmilla learned from the best. 

(Not my art, but I've always loved this pic and wanted to add it to this scenario.)


	4. If only I could dream we could start again

**Carmilla learns to deal with the consequences of other people's happiness.**

_Tags: Hollence, Sad Carmilla, Angst_

 

It wasn't too bad, watching them be together. After all, she practically encouraged her. No, no scratch that. Nobody encourages Laura Hollis to do anything she hasn't already decided on doing, but she didn't expect seeing them hug and be close to each other to hurt this much. God, what she would give to switch places with the red giant.

Maybe her feelings weren't clear to her at first because, if she's for once in her life being honest, they never did come easy; but part of it also was seeing the way the cupcake's eyes lit up whenever she saw Xena duck into the dorm room Carmilla shares with Laura.

When Carmilla did finally realized her feelings for her naive roommate were more than just an extension of incessant instinct to protect defenseless girls from her mother, it was too late. She should have realized it before, when Laura talked about how she deserves better than whatever kind of life this is (Carmilla wouldn't even consider it a life), or when she was impressed at the blonde's determination to bring down the leadership of Silas, to save everyone she loves.

Watching her fall into the arms of  _her_  feels wrong, but what can she do to change it that won't make it a thousand times worse. She doesn't want to ruin anything else for Laura. So instead of getting up and ripping the beanstalk to pieces, she sits on the bed opposite Laura's with her book propped up on her knees, her eyes pretending to read words as she stares at them from the corner of her eye.

Maybe she never should have come here in the first place. There are plenty of other places to go, and Carmilla is sure that Laura would love some privacy with her girlfriend. The word is bitter, but she supposes she should get used to using it. It doesn't mean she hates the red-head any less, but at least it's a start to help her dead heart let Laura be happy.

She shouldn't feel so sorry for herself. And now she feels sorry that she feels sorry about herself. How sorry is she. How sorry could she be when Laura gets that same look of- she doesn't know what, whenever Carmilla can't hold her tongue around Clifford.

Carmilla is all about doing what's natural to her. Or at least she was before she became Laura's room mate and had to learn how to accommodate her 24/7 demand for sweets and comfort. She thinks twice before saying things, if not to spare Laura from any kind of emotional turmoil, then to make her so flustered that she spends an hour ignoring Carmilla with her face tinged red. In hindsight, maybe she should have known that Laura was going to wiggle her way into her heart. She is persistent and naive, but in the best ways, and apparently that's Carmilla's type.

She hears Laura giggle at something big red said, and curses herself for being so sappy and gross. Vampires don't do sappy and gross. Every soft trill of Laura's laughter is another twinge in her chest. She hates to admit it, but right now the only thing she wants to do is run. Far away from here, where Laura is with  _her_ , and Carmilla can't do any of the things she wishes she could. Casting another glace over at the two love-birds, she promptly shuts the book and throws it to the side, standing up and shoving a few things into her bag.

"Leaving so soon?" the red-head says in a sickeningly-sweet tone, receiving a light hit on the arm from the girl snuggled into her side. Carmilla pauses her impromptu packing and shuts her eyes for a second, but finds herself unable to come up with any witty comeback, so she just shrugs and leaves the room with one last lingering glance at Laura. She makes sure to leave the door open as her last act of defiance before she spends the next few days avoiding the source of her pain at all costs.

She figures, since all the danger is currently stagnant, with the dean dead and the angler fish for the most part destroyed, everyone deserves a few days off. She hopes Laura doesn't mind if she takes a few personal days to work out her emotions. She has Danny to protect her now


	5. Laura and the Comforting Beast

**Laura learns the consequences of being a hero.**

_Tags: Hollstein, Angst, Light Fluff, Catmilla_

_I'm_ _tired_.

Laura has had a long day. After a full semester of being bad ass and kicking the butts of every evil being in Silas, she promptly failed every single final. She supposes that's the consequence of trying to do the right thing and save her school. Not like they thanked her for that or anything.

Her eyelids feel like bricks. It's not a pleasant feeling, and if she's being honest she could really use a good hug and a crying session.

She opens the door to ger dorm room and tosses her bag on the ground by her bed, flopping onto her bed. Except instead of her bed, she ends up laying across the stomach of a big furry black panther with Laura's Yellow pillow clutched between its massive paws.

"Oh, hi," Laura says, not having enough energy to be mad at Carmilla for using her bed. It's probably already covered in hair, and yelling at her girlfriend isn't going to change that. She tries to get up, only for Carmilla to abandon the pillow and wrap her fuzzy arms around Laura's middle to tug her back down to lay against her exceptionally fluffy stomach. "Carmilla," Laura murmers in complaint, but it has no force to it.

Laura finally gives up, already exhausted as it is and not wanting to waste more energy fighting off a clingy possessive Catmilla. She turns in the panthers arms so she's laying along side her almost face to face but not quite, and tucks her arms close to her chest, burying her fingers in the fur along Carmilla's jaw and scratching slowly, almost numb. She finally sighs as the stress from the day starts to dissipate.

The tears fall slowly but surely, and she feels Carmilla pull her closer once more. Once she feels the soft rumbling of Carmilla's purr under her fingertips, only then does she let herself succumb to sleep.


	6. Being Human

**Carmilla is struggling to Adjust to Being Human**

_Tags: Hollstein, terrible Fluff_

 

Laura expected Carmilla's newfound humanity to be quick and painless. Much like getting a shot, or taking medicine. You feel weird for a little bit and then you're fine. Boy was she wrong. As it turns out, it's pretty hard to spend over three centuries as a vampire and then revert back to being human again.

After two months of living together, Carmilla still struggles with simple human tasks, not being able to use her cat-like reflexes or super-strength to her benefit anymore, which was a significant downside for Laura as well - believe that.

So they've been working together to weed out some of the more problematic habits... for instance... last Friday.

 

Laura had the day off from her ever-exciting journalism career, and of course she decided to spend it with her lovely human girlfriend Carmilla watching Below Her Mouth.

They're snuggled up together, Carmilla with one arm wrapped around Laura's waist, and Laura laying back against Carmilla's chest turned slightly so she's facing the TV with her head propped up on the pillow that Carmilla has on her lap, giving the older girl room to play with her hair.

"Hey, doesn't that girl look like me?" Laura asks Carmilla, pointing to the short blonde girl talking to one of the main characters. Carmilla hums in agreement, not entirely focused on the movie anymore, too busy brushing Laura's hair away from her neck, searching for the bite mark she left long ago, when they weren't mature enough to even sit in the same room together without butting heads. Laura keeps talking about how she could be an actress on TV if journalism didn't work out for her.

Laura tasted so good then. Like honey mixed with chocolate. So sweet she had a sugar rush every time she drank from her. She can almost taste her now-her taste buds tingle with it.

Before she can fully comprehend what she's doing, she's leaning down and her considerably dull front teeth are pressing down on the old scar, pulling Laura closer to her chest. Laura stops rambling abruptly and sucks in a breath.

"C-Carm, no, you're not a vampire anymore," she tells her girlfriend with a gasp, not sure whether to push her away away or pull her closer. Her girlfriend whines against her neck and bites down a little harder, as if she can somehow grow fangs.

"Carmilla, it's okay," the tiny girl coos, reaching a hand up to pet dark hair, "let go."

She hesitates, but eventually she sighs against Laura's neck and pulls away, but not before leaving a small kiss on the imprint of her front teeth.

"I'm sorry," Carmilla says dejectedly. When Laura looks up at her, she sees an almost adorable pout on the former-vampire's face. "I miss the way you taste."

Laura sits up more and hugs Carmilla close to her. Even though she's happy to be able to live a normal life with Carmilla, she's seen how much the girl has been suffering with this big change. She knows it's going to take time for her to adjust, but she wish she knew how much time.

"It's okay. You'll get through this." They continue watching the movie, and then Laura forces Carmilla to watch all of the Harry Potter movies with her for the fifth time.

 

But it's not just her fangs that Carmilla (and Laura) miss. They also miss the giant panther that occasionally popped up around the house and wreaked all kinds of havoc, usually ending in Laura forcing Carmilla to spend all day cleaning up the mess she made while she was Catmilla.

That's not to say that all aspects of her are gone, though. There is less hair for sure, but Laura has lost count of the number of times she has walked into a room to see Carmilla playing with a loose string on the couch, or a ball of yarn Laura accidentally left out.

On many occasions, Laura caught herself petting Carmilla's head like a cat, and what's worse is that Carmilla purrs. Anyone not knowing their situation would probably see them and run for the hills. Thankfully Laura and Carmilla have very understanding friends, who graciously invested in a laser pointer for the tiny blonde to use whenever she needs to entertain the cat.

It works better than she expected it to, and whether or not it's healthy, it's outright cute most of the time.

 

There are many aspects of her inter-species relationship that she will miss, but she's glad that she can grow old wi-

 

Oh shit, she's a vampire again? FUCK YEAH


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Credit to Negovanstein on Wattpad for this idea.   
> (Go check them out 'cause they have a lot of awesome fics)

**Carmilla Uses Strategy**

_Tags: Innocent Laura, Social Activism, Conniving Carmilla_

 

"Good morning, gentle viewers," Laura starts, receiving a scoff from the cold body laying in the bed to her left as usual, "Recently I've gotten a lot of requests to discuss the deal with inter-species relationships, and I would be delighted, as your sole informant on this here campus full of the supernatural, natural, and everything in between, to fill you guys in."

"As you all may know, my roommate, Carmilla, is a centuries old vampire whose only source of entertainment is to make a mess and steal my pillow." She shoots a glare over to the vampire, who hides her smirk behind a leather-bound book and raises an eyebrow at Laura. Laura tries her hardest to keep her face from flushing, but she's not entirely sure she succeeds, if Carmilla's amused chuckle is anything to go by.

"Anyway, she's not as bad as she seems. She's practically harmless, except for one incident when I got bitten, but that was under special circumstances. What's most important between species is communication, so that both sides know how the other works and can come to an agreement with whatever the conflict is.

"For example, Carmilla keeps stealing my pillow, so," Laura stands and walks over to Carmilla, grabbing the edge of the yellow pillow that Carmilla is using to prop herself up with. She yanks it out from behind her and the vampire falls back with a huff, using her elbow to lift herself back up in order to glare at the tiny gay in exasperation as the yellow pillow is tossed back on its rightful owner's bed. "Problem solved!"

"That wasn't a very effective use of communication, Creampuff. You could have asked nicely," she grumbles loud enough for Laura to hear.

"As if someone asking nicely has ever stopped you." Carmilla shrugs. She has a valid point, but what she doesn't know is that Carmilla would do anything to please her. Even if it meant giving up that yellow pillow. Okay, maybe they'd have to compromise on the yellow pillow... It smells too much like the blonde for Carmilla to just give it up.

Laura sits in her desk chair again and faces the webcam with a smile. "My point is, I understand that a lot of you are confused about your feelings, but there's no reason two people-human or not-can't date, as long as both sides of the relationship are happy."

She can practically hear the self-satisfied smirk in Carmilla's voice when she speaks up from behind her.  _Here we go._

"I'm gonna have to disagree with you there, Cupcake. There are a lot of reasons why they shouldn't." Carmilla sets her book down with her thumb wedged between the pages, marking her place. Laura turns toward her with her eyebrows furrowed and her nose scrunched up in frustration, almost bringing a smile to the vampire's face from how cute it looks. Her weakness.

"Go on, then. Tell the world your closed-minded views, Kitty," she says the last word bitterly knowing how much the vampire hates it, and Carmilla can see the flash of hurt in her eyes. Well, nobody's ever liked playing devil's advocate.

"First of all, humans are naive. You don't know when to quit; don't know when to walk away. They don't realize how _dangerous_  is, and that they might be  _one_  argument away from being dinner. And secondly, you can't expect an entirely different species with different cultures and expectations to fit into human life so seamlessly. There are conflicts."

"Maybe there were conflicts back in 1698, but today people are progressive and accepting, unlike you." Laura crosses her arms and Carmilla mimics her, smirking and leaning forward to stare into the blonde's brown eyes.

"For all your preaching about inter-species dating, I don't see you jumping at any opportunities. You even shot down Padfoot, your Lit TA. I doubt you'd even  _consider_  dating someone from another species."

And there's the challenge that Carmilla had worked up to so seamlessly, so effortlessly it seemed to flow into the argument like it was meant to be there. She sees the anger swim in Laura's pupils as she stands from her desk chair with clenched fists by her sides. Her nostrils flare.

"Don't bring Danny into this-she has nothing to do with this. I would definitely date someone from another species if they asked. Just because you're a 335 year old... bad person.. doesn't mean you don't remember how to be kind! And even though I've bothered you about cleaning up and doing chores every day, you still haven't eaten me."

Laura can't help the red staining her cheeks now.

A flash of something glints in Carmilla's eyes as she recognizes the truth in Laura's words. She expected her to say something along those lines, but hearing her actually say it is... different than she expected it to be. She could have easily handed Laura over to her mother the first day she got there. It was her love for a human that started this whole conflict; spurred her need to save Laura and other girls like her from her mother. She tilts her head and smiles as she murmurs to herself, "trust me, Cupcake. I'm working on it."

"How about you prove it then?"

"Prove it?" Laura asks, tilting her head in confusion. Carmilla lifts her book back up and looks at it nonchalantly.

"Prove me wrong. Prove you have no problem dating someone from another species," she says with that smirk that messes with Laura's head in more ways than one, "Go out with me, Laura."

_Wait, did she hear that right? Did Carmilla just ask her out?_

She can't help the swelling of her heart in her chest or the several beats it skips as she stares at Carmilla in silence for several moments. She knew something was off about Carmilla being so against inter-species relationships! She should have known, after hearing how reverently she talked about Elle!

Slowly she backs up toward the door with a smile which she sees is matched on Carmilla's face.

"Eight o'clock. I'll bring the cupcakes," she says before dashing through the door, immediately doing a small dance in the hallway outside their dorm room, not caring who sees. Carmilla asked her out, and that's all that matters.

Back in the dorm room, Carmilla stands from the bed, still holding her book, and grabs one of Laura's chocolate chip cookies. "Buckle up, Creampuffs. It's gonna be a long ride," she says with a smug grin as she winks and turns the recording off. She shoves the cookie in her mouth and grabs the yellow pillow off of Laura's bed, settling back into her own bed to get back to reading her book, feeling content knowing that everything turned out according to plan.


	8. I want this more than life

**The first time Carmilla and Laura wake up together**

_Tags: Carmilla is old and emotional, Laura is tired_

  
If she could suffocate in blonde hair, she thinks it would be a happy death. It is soft and smells nice, like sunshine and pine. For a long time she did not believe she had the capacity to love the smell of something as much as the smell of blood; the way it tastes on her tongue as she lavishes it from some unsuspecting thrall, but months of staring and craving, if not her love's body then just to be able to hold her this way, have led to the vampire's austere heart's deepest desires to be unequivocally usurped by the blonde-haired mess which lay sleeping in her arms at this moment, breathing deeply before exhaling a soft snore. Breathing.

That which passes by inconsequentially is not unlike her love. Forever alive in the vampires memory until darkness consumes everything that elemented them. Ideas are powerful. The mere idea of having someone to hold this way warms her cold heart. A human's life is limited to the present, with the past and future being unwelcome demons that they would rather not speak of. A vampire, though, lives fluidly without care for time, as it passes by in negligible dissonance. She could spend hours watching the way her chest rises and falls delicately, mystified by the organ that lies beneath it, which is stronger than the vampire herself could ever be. In all of her three hundred and thirty seven years, never once could she sacrifice so much for once person and survive such as her, in content.

If a vampire is enslaved by time, then her love has mastered it. Her love envelops her in the best ways, and the worst ways. She takes her eternity and turns it into a lifetime of waiting for something that will never come, because it has already came. It is laying in her arms. It is drinking hot chocolate like water. It is obscure TV references. She will spend the rest of eternity clawing at the past as the future drags her along by her ankles. Digging up time capsule after time capsule until she finds what she lacks.

"Carm," the golden ray of sunshine rasps into her shoulder, "I can practically hear you internally monologue in Shakespearean, go back to sleep."

The vampire tilts her head forward to press a light kiss to her love's forehead. "Okay, Cupcake."


	9. What's going on in there?

**This is practically a crack fic,** **but really what has this whole one-shot collection been?**

_Tags: LaFerry, Crack, Fluff, Sexual themes_

 

 

If there's one thing Lafontaine loves, it's a new thing to experiment on. So when they found out J.P. Armitage had been living in one of the computers in the sentient library, they just had to get their hands on him. Once they got him on the sleek and sexily portable USB drive, it was pretty easy to just plug him into anything and talk to him. And talk to him Laf did.

For hours on end Laf would shut themselves up in their room doing nothing but talking to J.P. about the past and everything he experienced living in the catalogue for so long. In turn, Laf told him about their experiments and how much they love science.

One day, J.P. decided to allow Lafontaine to delve into his consciousness. He had never let the science nerd do it before, and surprisingly they had respected his wishes, but it was time. He had no reason to feel so... bashful about it. It's not like it's a pleasurable act. He supposes he just wasn't ready to find out his origins until now. Right now.

**I want you to explore me, Lafontaine.**

"J.P., for real?"

**It's time.**

"If you say so, Armitage. Don't blame me if I press a wrong button though."

**I trust you.**

That's all that Laf could ask for in a totally platonic not in any way at all sexual friendship between a human person and a possibly-once-was-human-but-now-might-be-dead-but probably-might-just-be-trapped-in-a-computer... thing.

 

 

* * *

 

 

She always knew this day would come, when she lost her one true love. Lafontaine was in their room again, with J.P. She just didn't expect her to lose them to an 8-bit.

But, then again. It's Laf. They get aroused at the sight of new science equipment. She really should have seen this coming. It hurts though. The pang in her chest is all she can focus on, when she can't hear Lafontaine's voice creep in from the intermittent silence in the other room.

"oh man, you're so responsive" Perry hears Lafontaine say. It tears at her, so she decides to clean the entire house again for the third time that day. What else can she do? Her love doesn't want to be  _hers_  anymore.

The movements of her arms become jerky as they shake and she has to put more effort into scrubbing the counter tops with the sponge. Clean home, clean brain. or something. She's not sure what her mother used to say, but it definitely wasn't-

"Can't believe you're letting me touch you like this, J.P." Their voice is louder somehow even though she's trying her best to masque it with the sound of scrubbing and soap and all the delicious destressing goodness that she bathes herself in every day. They aren't working.

"I can't go any faster." It's a long and drawn out, and each second that Perry has to hear it for is like a millennium (falcon) in her mind brain.

"Yes!"

"Oh, right there!"

She throws the rag down in frustration and storms over to Lafontaine's door, knocking harshly four times.

"Come in, Per." Gladly. She opens the door to see Lafontaine on their bed with their laptop sitting next to them, a bunch of complicated symbols spread over the screen. They look like hieroglyphs or something. Perry doesn't have time for hieroglyphs!

"What were you doing in here?" Perry asks tersely.

Letters start popping up on the screen over the strange symbols

**Uh oh**

Perry narrows her eyes at the laptop.

"J.P. let me explore his files."

"Is that what they're calling it these days? 'Exploring someone's files'?" She puts air quotes around it as if it sounds absurd. Which it does. No questions there.

"Call what?" Laf asks confused. Perry heaves a great sigh and rolls her eyes.

**Perry I am inside a laptop decorated with my little pony stickers. I do not need any further embarrassment.**

"The noises you were making weren't exactly PG-13. I'll have to ask you to keep it own next time you-"

"The next time I  _what_ , Perry?" Laf's standing on their own two feet now and they look pissed with their arms crossed across their chest and their eyebrows furrowed. Perry won't back down though.

"The next time you  _fornicate_  with your digital  _boyfriend_!" Perry says it in a rushed manner as she points at the laptop, which just shows a shocked emoji face. She doesn't know if she'd be able to say it a second time. Lafontaine gasps as they hear the words and clutches their chest as if hurt.

" _Boyfriend?"_  They ask," Then what are we? Just friends? I thought we were past that!"

"I thought we were too!"

"Whatever you thought I was doing with J.P. is not true. He's in a damn computer for Christ's sake, what  _could_  I do?!"

**Actually y-**

"Shut it, J.P.!" Lafontaine is unusually brutal right now. Perry needs to Lafon-tame them, so she steps forward with her head bowed in guilt and takes one of Laf's hands.

"I'm sorry, Laf," she says quietly, so only Lafontaine can hear. Hopefully. She looks up into their eyes and sees the anger slowly melting away as they take a deep breath.

"It's okay, Per," they tell her as they pull her into a hug, "you were just jealous of a laptop."

"I was- I was not!" she says indignantly, "I was jealous of the thing inside the laptop!"

**I am not a thing!**

"I know my love for science is strong, but it isn't  _that_  strong." Lafontaine smiles and giggles against Perry's neck. Perry holds them closer, beginning to laugh with them.

"I love you," she whispers. They whisper it back instantly and Perry sighs in relief knowing she hasn't lost them.

yet.  
  



	10. Even if it's a lie

  
**Carmilla was gone.**   
_Tags:_ _Hollstein,_ _Angst_

  
"Say it," I beg pathetically, my voice cracking around the lump in my throat. "Please, just say it."

Laura sighs shakily with tears in her eyes and grips the door frame tighter.

"I don't love you, Carmilla." She doesn't meet my eyes as she says it. Maybe that's what makes this harder. I take a step back, wounded beyond belief. The hole in my heart isn't shrinking any with this closure.

"You were gone for-" but she stops, unable to finish making excuses. We both know how long I was gone for. A shuddering breath leaves my lips when I wipe away a tear that managed to get loose. I don't know why I bothered.

"Goodbye, Laura," I say as I take one last look at her, committing her tear-stained face to memory, "I don't love you either."

With that I take another step back and walk down the hall, away from my future and the love of my life, feeling as if every step I take is another chance at destroying what remains of the life I had once loved.


	11. Stay

_Tags: Hollstein, Angst_

"Carm. Carmilla! I'm here, I'm okay!" Laura's voice breaks through the dense fog surrounding my mind, and her hands on my shoulders ground me. All I can think is how it's been so long since I've felt her warmth. How is she here?

"Laura?" My teary voice sounds like a whimper compared to hers, strong and comforting. The sigh I intended came out sounding more like a strangled sob as more tears fall. When was the last time I've cried like this?

"Laura," I sob again. I want to bury my face in her soft, jasmin-scented blonde hair and cling to her and never let go. She's been gone for too long.

But then I open my eyes and my arms are clinging to nothing, and this white padded room feels emptier than before.

I couldn't save her.


	12. Get that out of here

**Ultimate Distraction**

_Tags: Fluff, Hollstein, Cat_

 

"Hey Cupcake, where are they keys to the car?" Carmilla calls out from the living room. Laura is in the bedroom when she hears the question and freezes with that 'oh shit' look on her face. She was technically supposed to find them yesterday, but she can't help it if she's living with an extremely sexy leather-wearing vampire! 

 

She stops what she's doing and takes a deep breath before opening the bedroom door to see a helpless looking Carmilla, ready for work in her black pants, red vest, and white button down. Laura thinks she'll be the best ticket seller at the theater. That is, if she could actually get there, seeing as the keys are currently lost in some parallel dimension. 

 

What Laura wouldn't give to have the Mirror of Erised right now.

 

"Okay, listen. I was going to find them, but then you were there and you looked so... tired and cute and you were cuddly and I didn't have time, I'm really sorry Carmilla I'll make it up to you, I swear! I'll even-" Carmilla's jaw only tenses more and more as Laura keeps rambling. She's afraid it will break. 

 

Okay, maybe 'cute and cuddly' wasn't the best choice of words when dealing with an angry 17th century vampire, but in her defense it isn't a lie! What would you call having a tired little blood sucker laying on you all night and grumbling whenever you tried to get up-TO FIND THE KEYS MIGHT I ADD-and then sleepily murmuring how much she loves you in-between lighthearted death threats?

 

"Laura, how many times did I tell you to find those keys?" the girl starts off low and calm but her voice raises as she keeps talking, "I have to be at work in an hour and I can't start the car!"

 

"Don't yell at me! You wouldn't let me get up!" Laura says back, ever the stubborn one. The raven-haired girl crosses her arms in a defensive manner.

 

"So it's my fault that I'm going to be late for my first day of work?"

 

"Yes!" Nope, bad Laura. She's mentally face palming at how horribly she's handling this right now.

 

"Oh, you've done it now," Carmilla says with a bitter smile as she walks past her and into the bedroom. The blonde closes the door knowing that it'll probably be a very long morning of yelling, arguing, and make-up sex before it opens again.

 

"Look, Carm, I'm-"

 

"I don't care right now. You went on and on about how I should get a job for so long! 'Oh, get a job, Carmilla', 'Oh, it'll be _fun_ Carmilla'" she mocks in a high pitched tone and then points a finger at Laura, who starts to inch toward the bed. "But then I ask you to do one thing for me that would help me _keep_ this job you so _desperately_ wanted me to have, and you don't do it!" 

 

Carmilla pauses in her seething rant when she sees Laura slowly bend down and pull out a long wooden stick with a feather attached to one end by a string.

 

"I thought I told you to throw those things away," she says with wide, frantic eyes. She's still angry, but now it's mixed with fear and shame. Laura starts walking toward her slowly and Carmilla backs up until her back hits the wall. 

 

"Laura, get that out of here!"

 

The blonde smiles and raises the stick high in the air and dangles the feather in front of her girlfriend's face, seeing her turn her head to the side and try her hardest not to look at the vibrant green feather in her periphery. She makes the feather jump a few times and is delighted when Carmilla swats at it, but quickly pulls the feather out of reach. 

 

"Stop it, Laura! I'm trying to be angry!" She growls and swats at it again, but misses terribly. Her eyes follow it quickly as it shoots back and forth, and her hands twitch with the urge to reach out and snag it, but she resists as much as she can until, soon, it's too much to handle, and she lunges toward it and ends up laying on the ground next to the bed, huffing in disappointment.

 

The younger girl lays on the bed with her head propped up on her hand and flicks the feather back and forth above where Carmilla lays, hoping to entice her cat-like nature again. With a sigh of defeat, the vampire looks to the side and sees in the darkness of the underside of the bed, the car keys.

 

"Hey, I found the car keys!" Carmilla says excitedly. She stands up quickly and cups Laura's face, pressing a kiss to Laura's lips, pulling on the girl's lower lip with her teeth and then brushing over it softly with her thumb. "I'm sorry."

 

"I love you. Get to work," Laura says softly with a small smile, which Carmilla returns easily with all the anger from before nowhere to be found. She leaves quickly.

 

Laura puts the cat toy in a new hiding spot for later.


	13. I'll be here.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is some dialogue. I feel like it's better without all the mushy in-between bits. I'm leaving that up to the imagination.

 

_Tags: Angst, Depression, There's some fluff if you squint real hard._

 

[Laura and Carmilla, two human girls in their twenties who have only known each other for two weeks, are at a house party. Carmilla accidentally reveals to Laura that she's been struggling with depression. Realizing her mistake, she flees to the bathroom, but Laura follows. The following dialogue takes place.]

 

LAUR: Why didn't you say anything?

CARM: What good would it do? I'd just be complaining, and that gets me nowhere.

LAUR: Talking about it could help.

CARM: I don't want to bother anyone.

CARM: Its all 'get some help' or 'talk to a professional'. But for what? just to have someone to tell me that my emotions are validated? That I should take some pills to fix my brain?

LAUR: No, to help you through this! You can't do this on your own. Don't you know that?

CARM: I have been doing this on my own!

LAUR: And look at you now! Sitting on the bathroom floor all alone when you could be out there, being yourself.

CARM: This is who I am. I'd rather be alone and me, than... someone I don't even recognize. I wouldn't want that.

LAUR: Well, you're never going to be alone as long as I'm here.

CARM: Yeah, and how long will that last...

LAUR: as long as you let me.


	14. Normal Silas Afternoon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if there's any problems with me switching tense. For some reason I had a hard time with it this time.

**Not your usual coffee shop AU**

_Tags: Fluff, Hollstein, Terrible pun, What am I doing with my life._

It was a normal afternoon on the Silas campus. Students were building barricades in the student center, large posters of the angler fish god were being plastered onto every wall, and somewhere in a small coffee shop sat Laura Hollis, enjoying a nice cup of hot chocolate after a long day of pretending to study while binge watching Doctor Who and reading  _very_  wholesome Harry Potter fics. Well, she never claimed to be the perfect student.

She glanced around the shop taking in the ambiance. The yellow pastel chairs accented with brown coffee stains which adorned nearly every inch of the place. She had to search hard to find a clean-looking place to sit, but eventually she found a table by the front window looking over the empty pathway that cuts through the campus.

So there she sat, sipping from her cup and thinking about nothing in particular when, suddenly, she heard music. Seafaring music. Like the kind you might hear on Spongebob. The source was nowhere to be found until, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a big wooden thing covered in seaweed and barnacles speedily rolling down the walkway on very unstable-looking wheels. _A pirate ship!_

Her eyes widened comically when it screeched to a halt and ten grimy looking men hopped off of the ship with scabbards, a treasure chest, and stereotypical pirate hats with red and white clothes in various places, which thankfully covered everything that needed to be covered. Laura didn't want a repeat of the Zeta's Halloween Bash last year. They unsheathed their swords and rushed into the coffee shop, yelling and... well, 'arg'ing their hearts out as they threatened the cashier who, honestly, looked so sick and tired of the shit that goes on on this campus. Poor guy. 

But he opened the cash register, to the delight of every single 'arg', 'yar', and 'shiver me timbers' in the small shop and started to put the money in the large wooden treasure chest sitting on the counter. Laura stood up to make her exit as fast as possible with her precious hot chocolate, realizing that, on today of all days, she had about a thousand other places to be right at this instant and, wow, if she doesn't leave now, she'll be late for that sky diving appointment!

She made a rush toward the door, only to be blocked by one of the pirates, except unlike the others this one had a relatively clean and particularly  _feminine_  appearance. She was wearing one of those loose puffy-sleeved white shirts tucked into her black trousers and had a make-shift scabbard tied around her waist which was basically a red strip cloth with her sword threaded through it. Her raven black hair cascaded down and curly tendrils caught the setting sun and-

Not the point. She was attractive, leave it at that.

But that all went out the window, for the most part, when the pirate smirked a lascivious smile and bent down and grabbed Laura around the waist, lifting her up over her shoulder like a trophy. Laura hit the woman's back with her fist and kicked her legs in protest, but the woman had a strong grip around her waist.

" _ARG_ , I GOT THE BOOTY!" the woman yelled to her crew mates, who in return 'arg'd and hollered hauling the full treasure chest out of the door, following the girl who Laura then believed to be their captain. Laura was mortified, being paraded around on this attractive woman's shoulder wasn't exactly the highlight of her day if she's honest.

They boarded the pirate ship and Laura felt the ramshackle wheels lurch as the crew moved the boat along by pushing on the concrete with long wooden oars. The attractive woman gave Laura a disarming smile from across the deck as they took off into the sunset.


	15. I promise I'm trying

_Tags: Hollstein, Depression, Anxiety, Catmilla, Fluff, Angst_

She slams the door behind her and locks it with shaky hands as she tries to keep her breathing deep and even. If her father could see her now, he'd be up in arms trying to apprehend the person chasing her, but the thing he doesn't understand and that she so desperately wants him to understand, is that there's nobody chasing her. She's the only one chasing herself in an endless cycle of trying to be okay and hoping to be okay, when in reality she will never be okay. She gave up on the concept of 'happy' a long time ago, and along with 'happy' went 'friends' and 'restful sleep' too.

The only light in her life is the ball of fur slinking up next to her with an reserved meow, staring up at her. Laura sinks down to the floor and leans against the door next to her only friend.

"Hey, Carmilla," she says with her voice wavering on every syllable. The sleek black cat steps onto her lap and rubs against Laura's face. Her soft fur is already starting to help the blonde girl breathe slower. Shaky hands smooth over the cat's back and back up slowly.

"I'm sorry I left you behind today," she sighs, her voice not as wobbly as before, "I thought I was ready. For.. I don't know. To be on my own -- outside these apartment walls at least."

The cat merely stares at her and nudges into her hand when she raises it up to stroke the long whiskers protruding from black fur. When she first got Carmilla, she was a little bit unsure, since she never had a pet before, how having a cat would help her mental stability, but the first time Carmilla insisted on sitting on her lap when she was having an anxiety attack, she realized how helpful an emotional support animal could be. Her sleep hasn't improved much, but her ability to handle whatever life or her own brain throws at her has gotten a lot better. She can't even imagine what life would be like without her.

"Come on. Let's go to bed, Carm."

Laura lays in bed with Carmilla snuggled into her side on top of the blankets as usual, and they both fall asleep in no time at all.

 

* * *

 

"Cupcake, never leave me," the deep yet feminine voice whispers. She feels slender arms wrap around her and pull her into a warm hug. Her foggy thoughts present to her the image of Carmilla's face, her green cat eyes watchful and her mouth almost smirking -- if a cat can even do that, but when she opens her eyes a woman lays next to her instead, Her long wavy dark hair cascades behind her and her face is very close to Laura's. In her dark brown eyes, which meet Laura's gaze without hesitation, rests something powerful, captivating. It seems like she spends hours staring into those eyes until the moment slips away into her subconscious and she wakes up to a new day.

Carmilla's paws settle on Laura's chest with increasing pressure, and the blonde lifts the cat off her chest several times, fruitlessly, knowing that Carmilla will just keep on doing it until she gets up to feed her. She's lucky to have such a needy cat.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeey if you like weird but totally awesome and catchy indie songs, you should check out Cavetown. Totally not a promo. I just really love him. (This title is one of his songs.)
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/user/fluffybluehat


	16. Write a letter, you'll feel better

**Laura tries an "advanced therapy technique"**

_Tags: Angst, Where rhyme and fandom should never meet_

She had thought that writing her feelings would help her stop being sad, so she spent an afternoon drafting a lengthy letter to her dad. She detailed every moment until her fingers started to burn; every twist, every curve, every monster at every turn, and every word someone said to make her heart ache with concern

She started to feel warmer with each word that spilled out of her finger tips. Each finger stroke brought a small smile to her pursed lips. Soothed yet disheartened by the events of the past, she thought back on all her friends as she continued her task.

Each one with strengths and weaknesses of their own, each weakness exploited and fatal if ever shown. Danny, poor Danny Lawrence. As she writes the tall girl's story her cheeks are flooded with teary torrents. And Carmilla of all people to capture her heart, there'd be no finer irony even in the greatest of Shakespeare's art. 

But nevertheless she finishes her letter at midnight, and faces the dilemma she thought that she might.

To delete or not to delete, that is the question. Her mind spins with her troublesome obsession. To delete is forever, and forever is far away. How can she delete the past when it is there to stay?

 But therapy is as therapy does, so her finger rests on the backspace button with a numbing buzz. The words on the screen in front of her disappear and a piece of her heart goes with; It flutters out the open window and into the great angler's pit.  

Without another word she lays down on her bed and attempts to quiet the racing thoughts in her head. Thought after thought, memory after memory, she thought she had bought her happiness but it only left her simmering.

She curls around her yellow pillow and falls into restless slumber, hoping against all hopes that tomorrow she wouldn't feel any number.

Then, from the heavy shadows emerges a dark lithe figure. It takes the yellow pillow and promptly retreats with a raised middle finger.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don't kill me for the rhymes I just need something new to write sometimes.


	17. Everlasting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wrote a one sentence drabble-type thing as revenge.

**Who will buy the cupcakes now?**   
_Tags: Hollstein, Angst, Ouch, One sentence._

Her feeble and wrinkled hand that I had held and kissed and cherished so many times in the past fell limp in mine, which was still as young as the day we met, as the rhythmic beeping of the monitor fell into one continuous, deafening tone which bore into my eardrums and reminded me that even centuries into the future my heart would still ache for the past; to be with Laura Hollis and to cuddle up on cold nights, binge watch silly 21st century TV shows, and fall into everlasting love all over again every day, yet still somehow deeper each time, knowing no matter what I did to show her how special she is, it still wouldn't be enough.

 


	18. Go sleep, Cupcake.

_Tags: Hollstein, Fluff, drunk Laura, tired Carmilla, Caring Carmilla_

Carmilla's just come home from a long day at work and unlocked the front door hoping to get some peace and quiet with her girlfriend. As usual, her hopes are meaningless. There's a sadly familiar red car in their driveway that Carmilla had to weave around to get to a good spot.

 The scene she walks into isn't at all what she expected, because to be honest she's learned to stop expecting things whenever it comes to the red-heads. Rarely are there every quiet days when it comes to them, though. They always manage to make chaos where ever they go -- mostly Lafontaine, but Perry does her fair share of damage herself despite touting her cleaning efficiency.

This time they seemed to have brought Laura on board. What in the-

"I'M LIKE A BIRD, I'LL ONLY FLY AWAY!" the cupcake screams at the top of her lungs, standing on the coffee table holding a clear bottle of liquid. Who the hell gave the tiny girl a bottle of vodka and let her get on the table where she could fall and get hurt?! 

The answers are currently laughing so hard they can't move, so they're laying back with their chests quaking with silent laughter and their arms closing in on themselves -- they're clearly drunk as well. Carmilla's having none of it. 

"What the frilly hell is going on here?" Carmilla asks indignantly. The red-heads stop laughing and straighten up, silently communicating something that probably won't help their situation given their current dazed and under the influence state.

"Well, you see, Laura told us how she's never drank before since she only turned of age recently, and well-" Perry's words are slurred; she stops to hiccup and Laf continues for her.

"Yeah, so we gave her a beer! And, wow, she's such a lightweight she was already- you know." It's Perry's turn again. Carmilla raises an eyebrow at her, unenthused.

"She really is quite a lightweight, dear, you should be wary of that in the future," the usually uptight one says while trying her best to act like her usually sober self. Lafontaine picks up the slack.

"So, when she wanted another we decided to fill an empty bottle of liquor with water and give it to her, and here we are." Carmilla nods once and sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose as her exhaustion threatens to take over. The redheads look at her anxiously, and after a moment Carmilla looks up with her usual poker face.

"I'll deal with her." They both let out a collective sigh at Carmilla's verdict.

"Right, I'll see you later, Carmilla," Perry says a little too quickly as she and Laf make their way to the door.

"See ya," Laf calls to Carmilla as they close the front door. The tired girl doesn't bother with saying goodbye, but stares after them until the door is closed. Finally. 

"Caaaaaaarm," a slurry voice whispers in her ear from behind after arms wrap around her waist and a body presses into her back. Right, the cupcake. Teeth nip her earlobe.

"Cupcake, you're drunk, I'm gonna need you to finish that bottle and then get to bed." She says it slowly so the girl can understand. Maybe she's being a bit over the top, but she's been alive for three centuries and has had a lot of time to get tired of alcohol and the effect it has on others many times over. She and Laura should talk about this in the morning.

"Wait, finish the bottle? What?" Laura slurs, apparently more cognitively aware than Carmilla suspected, "wouldn't that just get me more drunk?"

Carmilla chuckles quietly and tries to walk out of Laura's arms, only to find that the girl has apparently decided to just walk with her. Her grip is tighter than before. Carmilla sighs and starts walking to their bedroom with Laura dragging her already tired body down. Who knew human bodies were so heavy? Laura giggles all the way there until Carmilla eventually pries her arms away and sits her down on the bed. "Drink up. Finish it."

She watches as the remaining water in the glass bottle drains down Laura's throat and then takes it from her, setting it on the bedside table and lifting the covers up so that Laura can get under them. While she did this, the cupcake took the liberty to take all her clothes off. The sultry look she tries to give ends up looking like she's in pain. It's kind of adorable.

"Get in bed." She coaxes her to the bedside gently as she can manage and lifts the covers higher for the girl to get in, and once she is, she turns the girl on her side and tucks her in tight to make sure she doesn't move while she goes to get a glass of water and Advil for the morning. Once she's back she slides in behind the cupcake and wraps her arm around the girl's stomach tight. Her breath hits the back of the girl's neck and makes her laugh.

Carmilla leaves a soft kiss on the back of Laura's neck and they both get some much needed sleep.

 


	19. You're Beautiful

_Tags: Hollstein, Fluff, haircut_

"Hey, Carm! Notice anything different?" Laura, sprightly and energetic, runs up to Carmilla as she lays on her bed with a book in the newly rebuilt residence hall; after the whole business with lophiiformes and Mother, the whole school practically needed rebuilding. There was, in fact, something different about the creampuff... but...

"Y- no. What is it?' Carm says trying to sound nonchalant as she's looking up at her girlfriend.

"I got a haircut!" 

"Oh really? I didn't notice." She had noticed. It was pretty hard not to, the girl had her hair cut very short, almost at Lafontaine's length, and while it worked for them, it didn't work very well for the cupcake. It kind of looks like a madman was set loose on her hair with a pair of scissors. 

"Do you like it?" she asks hopefully. Her sarcasm went over Laura's head, or maybe she just doesn't pay attention to it anymore. Carmilla takes another look at her and stands up, cupping the girl's face in her hands and pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. 

"You're beautiful, as always." Even if her haircut is kind of a mess. They smile to each other in their own little bubble of comfort and love. But that sort of stuff never lasts long on the Silas campus. Soon enough, Lafontaine bursts into the room holding... a long needle for some reason... they tend to run around campus holding weird scientific shit. Carmilla never asks, and is sort of afraid to.

"Whoa! Frosh, what's wrong with your hair?" They immediately say. Carmilla's eyes widen and she makes a slicing motion across her neck with her thumb to tell Laf to cut it out. Unfortunately for Carmilla, while they are efficient in scientific knowledge, social cues probably aren't their strong suit. "You look like-"

"I look like what?" From the way her voice sounds Carmilla can already see her puppy dog eyes and quivering lip. She puts her head in her hands and leans back on her heels.

"It looks like nothing, Laura. You're beautiful." Carmilla says to her again and flattens a piece of cow-licked hair affectionately. She shoots daggers at Lafontaine.

"Yeah, right! I was just gonna say- that. It looks great! Gotta go! Science!" Laf reverses out of there as fast as they can, to Carmilla's relief. Now if she can just keep everyone away from Laura for about six months... or maybe she can just tell them all not to say anything... It's just hair. It's not like she got her nose chopped off. Now that would be a real shame, Carmilla loves that nose. In fact, she turns Laura back around just to leave a flurry of kisses on the tip of it, ending with a peck on the lips. 

"What was that about? Why was Laf being so weird?" She has that confused look on her face that she always gets when trying to work out an article for her journalism class; her eyebrows drawn together and her lips parted slightly. Carm smiles minutely and lightly traces the girl's cheeks back and force with her thumbs.

"Maybe they drank one of the alchemy club's test potions again." That got a laugh out of Laura. They both remember the time they had to figure out how to turn someone back into a normal color after Lafontaine drank a strange potion and turned themselves neon pink. To be honest they were a bit hard to look until the potion eventually wore off after a week of wearing winter clothes during the hottest time of the year to cover up bright pink skin. 

"Yeah, I think Lafontaine got enough lecturing from Perry to know not to do that ever again." They laugh together, leaning on each other and just enjoying the moment when of-fucking-course, Kirsch decides to barge in with a tote bag.

"Little hottie! You look like you got stuck in a weed-wacker! Do you need a bro's protection?" He puffs out his chest like a demented frog as he squawks away about his bro-manship nonsense, completely ignoring the death glare Carmilla's sending. Laura is silent.

"Kirsch, get. out." Carm says tersely. He gets that kicked puppy look he gets whenever Carmilla talks to him and leaves. The room is silent.

"You're beau-"

"Carmilla! Why didn't you tell me?!" Laura, all ball of fury, turns around pointing a finger in Carmilla face rather harshly. She puts her hands up and backs up, falling backward onto the bed, not realizing how close they were standing to it. "Holy Hufflepuff..."

"Okay, look," Carmilla takes a deep breath," it doesn't look great, but you're still a cupcake to me." Laura stands there with her hands covering her face, much like Carmilla did when Lafontaine almost  and shakes her head. "I'm sorry. I didn't want you to... do this." She gestures to her standing there with her arms crossed and a pouting lip. "I still think you're beautiful, though. I didn't lie."

"I'm not mad at you... I'm just... I don't know what I was thinking when I got this haircut. I don't think I _was_ thinking" The creampuff lets her arms fall to her sides and sits on the bed next to Carmilla, laying her head on her shoulder.

"Maybe you drank the alchemy club's potion." She wraps one arm around her shoulders and pulls her closer. The girl makes a grunt of disapproval and buries her head in Carmilla's neck. Apparently she didn't appreciate that joke. "Be glad I don't like you just for your hair, cupcake, cause I would've had my bags packed before you could say 'boom' in that cute way that you do."

"You think everything I do is cute," she mumbles morosely. The smile on Carmilla's face echos the truth in that statement.

"You're not wrong. Lay down and I'll make some hot chocolate. We can watch whatever you want to watch for the rest of today. Does that sound okay?" Laura nods quickly and hugs Carmilla tighter as she kisses the side of her throat. She then lays down on Carm's bed and gets under the covers quickly, making sure to cover her hair. Carm smiles and shakes her head as she tosses one of her beanies to the embarrassed girl and starts making the hot chocolate. She's never going to hear the end of this from Laura, but that's _kind of_ why she loves her.

 


	20. You're Beautiful

_Tags: Hollstein, Fluff, haircut_

"Hey, Carm! Notice anything different?" Laura, sprightly and energetic, runs up to Carmilla as she lays on her bed with a book in the newly rebuilt residence hall; after the whole business with lophiiformes and Mother, the whole school practically needed rebuilding. There was, in fact, something different about the creampuff... but...

"Y- no. What is it?' Carm says trying to sound nonchalant as she's looking up at her girlfriend.

"I got a haircut!" 

"Oh really? I didn't notice." She had noticed. It was pretty hard not to, the girl had her hair cut very short, almost at Lafontaine's length, and while it worked for them, it didn't work very well for the cupcake. It kind of looks like a madman was set loose on her hair with a pair of scissors. 

"Do you like it?" she asks hopefully. Her sarcasm went over Laura's head, or maybe she just doesn't pay attention to it anymore. Carmilla takes another look at her and stands up, cupping the girl's face in her hands and pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. 

"You're beautiful, as always." Even if her haircut is kind of a mess. They smile to each other in their own little bubble of comfort and love. But that sort of stuff never lasts long on the Silas campus. Soon enough, Lafontaine bursts into the room holding... a long needle for some reason... they tend to run around campus holding weird scientific shit. Carmilla never asks, and is sort of afraid to.

"Whoa! Frosh, what's wrong with your hair?" They immediately say. Carmilla's eyes widen and she makes a slicing motion across her neck with her thumb to tell Laf to cut it out. Unfortunately for Carmilla, while they are efficient in scientific knowledge, social cues probably aren't their strong suit. "You look like-"

"I look like what?" From the way her voice sounds Carmilla can already see her puppy dog eyes and quivering lip. She puts her head in her hands and leans back on her heels.

"It looks like nothing, Laura. You're beautiful." Carmilla says to her again and flattens a piece of cow-licked hair affectionately. She shoots daggers at Lafontaine.

"Yeah, right! I was just gonna say- that. It looks great! Gotta go! Science!" Laf reverses out of there as fast as they can, to Carmilla's relief. Now if she can just keep everyone away from Laura for about six months... or maybe she can just tell them all not to say anything... It's just hair. It's not like she got her nose chopped off. Now that would be a real shame, Carmilla loves that nose. In fact, she turns Laura back around just to leave a flurry of kisses on the tip of it, ending with a peck on the lips. 

"What was that about? Why was Laf being so weird?" She has that confused look on her face that she always gets when trying to work out an article for her journalism class; her eyebrows drawn together and her lips parted slightly. Carm smiles minutely and lightly traces the girl's cheeks back and force with her thumbs.

"Maybe they drank one of the alchemy club's test potions again." That got a laugh out of Laura. They both remember the time they had to figure out how to turn someone back into a normal color after Lafontaine drank a strange potion and turned themselves neon pink. To be honest they were a bit hard to look until the potion eventually wore off after a week of wearing winter clothes during the hottest time of the year to cover up bright pink skin. 

"Yeah, I think Lafontaine got enough lecturing from Perry to know not to do that ever again." They laugh together, leaning on each other and just enjoying the moment when of-fucking-course, Kirsch decides to barge in with a tote bag.

"Little hottie! You look like you got stuck in a weed-wacker! Do you need a bro's protection?" He puffs out his chest like a demented frog as he squawks away about his bro-manship nonsense, completely ignoring the death glare Carmilla's sending. Laura is silent.

"Kirsch, get. out." Carm says tersely. He gets that kicked puppy look he gets whenever Carmilla talks to him and leaves. The room is silent.

"You're beau-"

"Carmilla! Why didn't you tell me?!" Laura, all ball of fury, turns around pointing a finger in Carmilla face rather harshly. She puts her hands up and backs up, falling backward onto the bed, not realizing how close they were standing to it. "Holy Hufflepuff..."

"Okay, look," Carmilla takes a deep breath," it doesn't look great, but you're still a cupcake to me." Laura stands there with her hands covering her face, much like Carmilla did when Lafontaine almost  and shakes her head. "I'm sorry. I didn't want you to... do this." She gestures to her standing there with her arms crossed and a pouting lip. "I still think you're beautiful, though. I didn't lie."

"I'm not mad at you... I'm just... I don't know what I was thinking when I got this haircut. I don't think I _was_ thinking" The creampuff lets her arms fall to her sides and sits on the bed next to Carmilla, laying her head on her shoulder.

"Maybe you drank the alchemy club's potion." She wraps one arm around her shoulders and pulls her closer. The girl makes a grunt of disapproval and buries her head in Carmilla's neck. Apparently she didn't appreciate that joke. "Be glad I don't like you just for your hair, cupcake, cause I would've had my bags packed before you could say 'boom' in that cute way that you do."

"You think everything I do is cute," she mumbles morosely. The smile on Carmilla's face echos the truth in that statement.

"You're not wrong. Lay down and I'll make some hot chocolate. We can watch whatever you want to watch for the rest of today. Does that sound okay?" Laura nods quickly and hugs Carmilla tighter as she kisses the side of her throat. She then lays down on Carm's bed and gets under the covers quickly, making sure to cover her hair. Carm smiles and shakes her head as she tosses one of her beanies to the embarrassed girl and starts making the hot chocolate. She's never going to hear the end of this from Laura, but that's _kind of_ why she loves her.

 


	21. Don't Wanna Leave

**Blanket Forts and Broken Hearts**

_Tags: Hollstein_

 

She sees her in the kitchen sitting at the center island early in the morning most days with a cup of coffee. It is usually on the verge of slipping through her fingers as she dozes with her head rested on her arms.

Carmilla always catches it before it even has a chance to fall, because the moment Laura gets out of bed at dark o'thirty, Carmilla is wide awake. She won't admit it, but it's getting harder and harder to sleep without Laura nestled in her arms all night, legs tangled and their breathing in sync. Well, when Carmilla could breathe, anyway.

What she misses most is the tired mornings when Laura refused to get up unless Carmilla made her a cup of coffee or hot chocolate. She finds herself smiling at the memory, but she feels a twinge in her chest knowing that it's just a memory now. Laura's right there next to her; it's too soon for anything to be in the past, but lately she feels farther and farther away.

She's spending more time at the news station, reporting on more stories. She's taking her career as a journalist even more serious now, if that's even possible.

Today Laura is surrounded by multi-colored index cards, like the ones that she used for her five year plan. Moving closer to the tired girl, she gently takes the empty mug from her loose grip, placing it on the counter next to the cards. Now that she's closer, she sees that they are those cards from the plan. She picks one of them up.

Buffy Marathon (all 7 seasons) with Carmilla <3

She turns turns it over in her hands slowly as she glances down at Laura and smiles sadly.

It's picturesque lighting. The newborn sun shining through the curtains and highlighting the blonde's exhausted and mussed profile with golden rays, making every out of place strand of hair shine brilliantly . If she could stay in this moment forever, she'd be content.

She decides it's time once she sees that the clock on the oven reads 6:45 AM. Carefully she brushes Laura's hair away from her cheek and presses a soft kiss to it.

"Laura," she whispers, pressing another kiss to the tiny gay's cheek, closer to her mouth, and caressing her cheekbone with her thumb gently, "wake up."

"Carm?" Laura says groggily, slowly coming to life and raising herself from the island to stretch her back.

"Good morning, Cupcake." She leans down once more to press a soft kiss to the blonde's lips, feeling her empty chest tighten with how much she misses her. The smaller girl reciprocates in a languid manner as she's not fully awake yet, and she tastes bittersweet like cold hot chocolate. Not the best taste in the world, Carmilla admits, but that's her Laura. They break apart after a minute, and Carmilla walks over to the refrigerator, still fiddling with the card she picked up.

"What's with the new project?" the vampire asks nonchalantly as she grabs a bottle of Soyblood and carefully takes a sip. She's still getting used to having to drink blood again after spending five whole years as a human. Laura looks down at the index cards spread out over the island top.

"I'm condensing my five year plan into a three year plan," Laura explains as she picks up a card, reads it, and places it in a pile to her left. Carmilla places her Soyblood on the counter, sits on the stool next to hers, and turns toward her with poorly concealed concern.

"Why?"

"Because," Laura answers simply, tight-lipped as she continues sorting cards and rearranging the ones she's already sorted. She stops when Carmilla covers one of her hands with her own, caressing the smooth skin there with her thumb in a slow back and forth motion.

"Laura, talk to me."

Laura lays the cards she holds in her hands on the table and turns toward Carmilla with the most brokenhearted look Carmilla had ever seen, and had hoped she'd never see on the cupcake's face. Instantly she wraps her in her arms and they melt into each other's embrace.

"I don't want to leave you, Carmilla," Laura admits with a broken voice muffled by the vampire's crushing hug.

"Cupcake, what? You're leaving?" She pulls away just enough to look into Laura's tear-filled eyes, feeling her stomach fill with dread, but it subsides when Laura shakes her head and sighs.

"No, not- not now. Not any time soon, but eventually. You're a vampire -- again -- and I'm only human. No matter how hard we try, no matter how many deals we make, we can't be together forever."

Carmilla would be the worst liar in the world if she said that thought hadn't plagued her nightmares.

"Is that- Is this why you've been working so hard?" Carmilla asks, pulling back and looking at the card in her hand as she rests her hands in her lap. Laura takes the card from her and reads it before answering.

"Kind of," she says shyly.

"Kind of?" Carmilla asks, disbelievingly with a raised eyebrow.

"Okay, yes." Carmilla sighs and takes Laura's hand again, squeezing it. Laura smiles, just barely, but it's there along with the sadness and the exhaustion in her eyes, a messy concoction of regret. "I'm sorry."

She can't blame her, but she wishes Laura would have told her sooner so that Carmilla could have tried to make things better. Things could have been so much better these past few months if she had.

"Then let's get started on this plan," the vampire says with a smile, shocking the cream-puff out of her guilt. She knows the conversation is far from over, but for now this is what they need. She's glad Laura seems to feel the same way, seeing the relief in her eyes. "What's first? Saving the penguins?"

"I think that's a little bit outside our range at the moment," Laura sighs with a frown. Carmilla looks down at the card in Laura's hand and tugs on it.

"Buffy?" At this, the tiny blonde brightens up like the sun and drags Carmilla out of the kitchen and into the living room where the couch and the TV are seat up opposite each other.

In her eagerness, she tries and fails to move the couch closer to the TV. Carmilla watches her struggle with a smirk.

"I'm glad I didn't see 'become a professional weight lifter' in your plan for the future."

"You could help, you know! I'm not the vampire with extra-super strength," Laura huffs. Carmilla laughs but concedes, moving the couch for her as Laura goes to the closet and gathers a stack of blankets and pillows.

"A fort?" Carmilla guesses, causing Laura to smile wide before dropping the blankets onto the couch. If her heart was beating, it would have skipped a beat right then, because Laura is so perfect when she smiles like that; like nothing else in the world matters but right here, right now. No wonder she hadn't seen that smile in so long, the creampuff was so focused on the future.

Carmilla gently yet firmly grabs Laura by the waist and pulls her flush against herself, leaning in so close that their lips are practically touching. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather..."

"Whoa, there! lady killer," Laura chuckles as she pushes her away lightly. She narrows her eyes "What happened to starting the plan?"

"Sorry, Cupcake, you just looked so adorable with that big smile on your face. I wanted to see if you taste as sweet as you look," she says innocently, but couldn't hide the devious smirk. She missed teasing Laura like this. It's been weeks since they last did anything together besides cuddle.

Most of all, she missed her girlfriend's red-tinged cheeks in response to her flirting. Right now, the red on Laura's cheeks rivals a cherry. Carmilla smiles wider than usual and kisses the tip of Laura's nose before grabbing a blanket off the stack and unfolding it.

Truthfully, Carmilla doesn't usually do things like make blanket forts, but the cupcake gets what the cupcake wants, and Carmilla has been seriously cupcake deprived for too long. They both need to do this. So the vampire drapes one end of the blanket over the back of the couch while Laura drapes the other end over the back of the TV, and then they both crawl under it.

Carmilla lays the rest of the blankets and pillows on the floor along with the couch cushions to make it more comfortable while Laura goes into the kitchen to prepare snacks. The scent of hot chocolate and buttery popcorn fills the air and makes her wish she wasn't a Vampire so that she could eat like Laura does.

When she returns, it's with a huge bowl of popcorn, the bottle of Soyblood Carmilla had abandoned in the kitchen, and a big mug of hot chocolate. This is the cupcake she knows and loves. She welcomes her back with a peck on the lips and takes the bowl of popcorn as the smaller girl scoots up to the TV and opens the Buffy the Vampire Slayer CD case, taking the disc out and popping it into the Blu-ray player.

"This might take about five days, but it'll be worth it," Laura smiles and leans into Carmilla once she's next to her again.

"Wait, five days?!" The vampire asks, shocked. Yes, she and Laura had discussed binge watching it many times before, but Laura failed to mention that when she said binge watch all seven seasons, she meant in one sitting.

"Of course! Once you start you can't just stop," Laura says, determined and adorable yet again, and Carmilla is so in love all over again. All she can do is pull Laura closer to her and wrap an arm around her.

"You're killing me, Hollis," she sighs, turning her head to look at Laura, seeing that she's already looking back at her. She can't physically resist her when she's this close, she's learned.

Slowly, she leans in, with her lips curved upward in a barely concealed smile, and she kisses Laura like it's the first time and the last time. If Carmilla is the ocean, then Laura is the beach that she returns to time and time again; waxing and waning, crashing and gliding. Taking bits and pieces of her with each push and pull. It's almost too intense for the moment, but they have too little time to worry about what's appropriate.

Still, Carmilla controls herself -- barely -- and pulls away, leaving Laura panting and flushed; that's satisfying in and of itself.

"We better get started then," Carmilla breathes out as as she pulls away even further, not sure she can handle the proximity without starting something again. She pulls her into her side so they're cuddling again as she presses play and the opening credits begin.

Laura is dazed and confused for the first ten minutes of the first episode, and Carmilla can't wipe the smile off her face at that small accomplishment.

They'll still have to finish their conversation later. She admits, it scares the frilly hell out of her knowing one day she won't have Laura anymore, but she also knows that no matter what happens to them they will always be together. In sickness, in health, in life, in death, in everything. Carmilla Karnstein can't imagine a life with anyone other than Laura Eileen Hollis.

And maybe Buffy the Vampire Slayer wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be; barring all the extreme vampire makeup. Or maybe it was just because she finally had her creampuff all to herself again.

 

"You are my epilogue,  
my prologue,  
and every chapter that exists in between."  
- _Seventy Years of Sleep_

 


	22. Earth & Sun

_Tags: Hollstein, screw grammar I make these sentences as long as I want_

Laura clings to Carmilla like a snail to a rock. Her rock: her earth, a ball of fiery passion with a hard outer shell. Her hands traverse her blemished skin like lonely vagabonds, getting lost on their meandering path with no clear destination, but eventually coming to the same point to rest above her heart and to cup her face and to hold her fate in her achingly lonely hands and to know that they are no longer alone because soon Carmilla's ice cold hands are in hers again, entwined.

If Carmilla is Laura's earth, then Laura is Carmilla's sun. She is the light which reveals all of her blemishes and erases them with honesty, purity, and forgiveness. Her life was torn from her at nineteen and for centuries she hiked down a dark, dank tunnel with an ever-teasing light at the end which only seemed to get further and further away the more she neared it, but the light, she's taken shape; and now she's drawn closer to her; and she is holding her in her arms, whispering sweet words, and drinking her in to get a taste of her -- her sun: her end and her beginning.

 

 

 


	23. Barking up the wrong tree

_Tags: Hollstein, Danny Lawrence_

Carmilla's never been one to shy away from confrontation. She knew this in high school when she got a referral for causing a scene in class, and in fifth grade when she cursed out some girl three years older than her just because she was rude to her friend. She even knew this when she punched some kid who stole the building block she wanted to use when she was in kindergarten.

But today is the third day in a row that she's come to the park at her University after her morning classes only to find a stranger in her usual spot. For some reason, instead of confronting her as she had done to many strangers in the past, she sits at an oak tree about twenty feet away and reads, leaving the girl with the blonde hair in peace.

The tree might very well be the most uncomfortable tree in the history of trees, but she'd rather have bark digging into her back than walk up to the girl and kick her off the bench.

The first day, when she was reading The Fall of the House of Usher, she saw the blonde drawing in a black sketchbook quietly while her dog, a retriever with a dark gold coat, ran around chasing squirrels and barking at unsuspecting people, most times scaring them half to death.

At times the girl would get up and reprimand her dog for scaring others and to apologize to people, but she was always too far away to hear.

She did notice that every time she had to talk to someone, she had a smile so bright that Carmilla feared she'd go blind from staring so long, but she couldn't seem to look away from the girl.

Every time he returned to the bench, she sat longways on it with her knees up and her sketchbook rested on them for the perfect drawing angle, which coincidentally was the worst angle for someone with long hair like her's because it kept falling in front of her eyes causing her to stop drawing in order to tuck the strands back behind her ear.

Every time she had to stop, Carmilla's urge to do it for her increased tenfold, but soon she had to go back to class, so she stood up from her uncomfortable spot under the tree with her book in her hand, stretched, and walked to her next class.

 

 

On the second day, upon finding her spot occupied yet again by a blonde girl in an over sized sweater, she didn't seem to mind sitting under the uncomfortable oak tree very much. She began reading a book that was assigned by her philosophy professor.

The girl was there with her dog again, except she had her laptop with her this time and was typing with her shoulders slouched and her sleeves rolled up, her face close to the screen and her eyes squinted. Carmilla guessed that she must be new to the typing game because there's no way anybody could type like that for an extended period of time without completely destroying their back. But the girl proved her wrong some time later when she was still hunched over the device, typing like her life depended on it.

She must have had an essay due, because once the blonde closed her laptop, she stood up and did a dance that looked more like a failed attempt at running than anything else, to Carmilla's amusement. Even her dog looked concerned.

Carmilla did a terrible job stifling her laughter and had to quickly look down at her book when the blonde, who she realized is actually pretty short, looked her way. Only then did she realize she was still on the first chapter of her assigned reading, after reading for the better part of two hours.

 

 

And today, the third day, Carmilla is sitting under that same uncomfortable oak tree, watching the blonde with a book of her own today; Harry Potter. Carmilla sighs, but smiles because somehow that's so fitting for the tiny girl who dances excitedly in public like nobody's watching, who draws and reads and cares about other people, and her dog. She's probably learned more about this girl than from anything she's read in the past three days.

Fuck it.

She's Carmilla Confrontation Karnstein.

Carmilla stands with confidence and walks up to the bench where the girl sits with her dog at her feet, reading her Harry Potter book with rapt attention in a hoodie that looks warmer than anything she owns. But as she's about to get the girl's attention, the red dog gets up and growls at her. The blonde jumps slightly and looks up at her with wide eyes.

Shit

Shit

What do I do?

She had gone through many lessons in elementary school about how to treat an angry dog, but she's seen this dog in action the past three days and knows that it's just trying to protect it's owner. So maybe if she backs away...

The dog walks closer every time she takes a step back

"I'll be right back," Carmilla says before she turns and runs, the dog barking at her and chasing her closely.

"Hey! Come back!" The blonde girl shouts. Whether at her or the dog, Carmilla doesn't know, but she's kind of preoccupied with avoiding being mauled by Clifford the big red demon who's hot on her tail.

She laps the park a few times before she gets an idea, having seen the different types of trees around the green space. Quickly, she cuts right and runs to a tree with some low hanging branches and prays that she goes to the gym often enough when she jumps and grabs onto one. She only struggles a little before she pulls herself up and onto the branch successfully. Sighing heavily, she lays on the branch and laughs to herself while she catches her breath.

"Danny! What the hell!" The blonde, who's even tinier from up here, yells, looking at the dog who's still barking up Carmilla's tree. The girl looks up at her apologetically and pets her dog. "I'm really sorry about her. I just got her last week and she really likes the park, even though she doesn't like other people being around me. She's... difficult to control, as I'm sure you know... because you're in a tree now."

"Um, yeah. This is mortifying." Carmilla runs a hand through her hair, pushing herself back up to a sitting position. "I'm Carmilla."

"Laura," the girl says with a small chuckle. Danny's stopped barking now and is sitting by Laura's feet again, staring up at Carmilla intently with her roach-like eyes. "I think it's safe to come down now."

Carmilla eyes the dog before swinging her leg over the branch and dropping to the ground smoothly, fixing her shirt afterward.

"Nice to be on the ground again." Carmilla looks at the dog once more, who's now preoccupied with some other passers-byers.

"I'm just glad you didn't get hurt or fall or something," Laura sighs, shaking her head and practically letting her hands do the talking for her. Oh, she's definitely falling, but not from any tree.

She mentally curses herself for being so vulnerable. The same thing happened with her ex, who's name doesn't even deserve to be spoken after how badly she hurt Carmilla, but that was five years ago when she was still in high school. Maybe she's ready again.

"So, why were you trying to talk to me?" Laura asks curiously, letting her hands drop to her sides. Carmilla smirks, gaining her confidence back after that damn dog threw her off.

"You stole my bench," she says, smirk growing at the look on the shorter girl's face.

"I'm sorry, what?" Laura raises an eyebrow, her smile growing confused. "Your bench?"

"Yeah, Cupcake. I sit there every day and read until my next class" Carmilla sees Laura's face go a shade pinker when she calls her cupcake, and mentally applauds herself.

"W-Well how come you didn't say anything the past three days then? I would have moved," Laura says with a hint of haughty stubbornness.

"You looked so adorable sitting there I didn't want to bother you, sun dance."

Laura opens and closes her mouth, at a loss for words for a long moment.

"You were watching me?"

"Oh, no. I was reading," she corrects her quickly. It's true she had done some reading, but the majority of her time was spent keeping an eye on the tiny blonde and her dog. She doesn't know if she should willingly admit that.

"It doesn't sound like you were doing much reading," Laura says as she clasps her hands behind her back with a smile and an odd look in her eyes, but Carmilla considers it a good sign and takes a small step toward her with an uncharacteristically shy smile of her own.

"Maybe we should just share it then," she suggests to the blonde. Laura squints her eyes and tilts her head humming as if in thought before she sticks out her hand.

"Deal."

Carmilla shakes Laura's hand and from that day until the day they both graduated, they shared that bench and that bench experienced the creation of many memories.

Their first hug, the first time Carmilla made Laura laugh until she cried, the first time Laura found out Carmilla is ticklish, their first kiss, and eventually, Carmilla's proposal one snowy afternoon four years later.

All because Danny is a bitch who wanted to go to the park. ♡

 


	24. I'm here

_Tags: Hollstein, fluff & angst_

 

_Missed call from **Creampuff**_

_Missed Call from **Creampuff**_

**Creampuff (4:50 pm):**   Carm pick up

_Missed call from **Creampuff**_

**Creampuff** **(4:52 pm)** : Please, we need to talk :(

 **Creampuff** **(5:29 pm)** : Carmilla..

 **Creampuff (5:30 pm)** : I'm sorry, I'll give you space

 

That was five hours ago, right before Carmilla tossed her phone to the opposite side of the room. It made her feel slightly better knowing she wouldn't have to read Laura's texts, but now that she doesn't have the constant check-ins from her girlfriend, her mind is going crazy with the possibilities of what could be happening.

It wasn't a big deal. Laura just wanted to hang out with Danny at a restaurant in a dress with makeup on her face. Carmilla was fine.

Except she couldn't tamp down her "entitled, self-righteous attitude" enough to be the supportive girlfriend Laura needed, and the fight ended with the angry blonde slamming the door on her way out.

Now she's been out for five hours and every minute is a jarring reminder of their fight and how Laura stormed out and how this is the first night in so long that she won't be eating dinner with her.

She spends the majority of the time thinking up scenarios. Laura coming home with bruises, or worse, that Carmilla could have prevented had she been there. Laura coming home drunk and covered in lipstick stains, quickly tossing her aside in favor of someone taller and redder. Laura coming home with a heartbreaking confession about her having another family that she visits every other week in west Kansas on the north-east side of fuckery ville.

What she doesn't think of is Laura coming home completely fine and sober, if a bit pissed off and a lot worried. Laura coming home and standing in front of Carmilla as she sits on the floor against the bedroom door staring at her phone from across the room, half asleep.

"What the hell, Carm?" Laura says tersely with her hands on her hips, staring down at the pale woman sitting on the hardwood floor.

"How was Danny?" Carm asks with her scratchy tired voice. 

"She was good." Carmilla laughs and looks up at Laura with a raised eyebrow.

"Better than me?"

"Wh- _Carmilla_! That's not what-" She makes that bunched up face that Carmilla always enjoys. 

"I know, Creampuff." She sighs. "I'm sorry for being jealous and worried."

"I'm sorry too.. um, I'm... I never meant to storm out like that. It probably made things a million times worse." She sinks down to sit next to Carmilla against the wall, placing a hand on her knee and rubbing circles into the skin peeking out from the holes in her jeans.

"A little," Carmilla agrees, her voice lowered to try to somehow hide the truth of that statement. "I shouldn't still get jealous when it comes to Danny. It's been... so many years since college, I know. I just have a hard time trusting her."

"I know, Carm, I know." She leans her head on Carmilla's shoulder and turns to leave a light kiss on her cheek, reaching a hand up to rub the lipstick she left. "I won't stop hanging out with her, because she's my friend and I enjoy spending time with her as my friend, but maybe you could join us next time."

"maybe," Carmilla agrees again and leans into Laura's side. Slowly she wraps her arms around her and hugs her tight to remind herself that she's still with her. Laura hugs back tighter.

Later, when she goes to take a shower. she looks in the mirror to see a small lipstick smile imprinted on the side of her neck.

 


	25. A Friendly Competition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I've been MIA. Good news is I have a shit ton to post on here, and then I'm marking this as complete.

_Tags: Hollstein, hinted Laferry, Fluff_

 

"What are they doing?" Perry whispers to Lafontaine worriedly. They're watching from the couch as Carmilla and Laura stare at each other, sitting across from each other at the dining table which has an open pack of cookies on it, as per usual. Neither one of them is blinking, and neither of them waver.

"I think... they're having a staring contest?" Laf postulates, their head tilting to the side.  Perry and Laf continue watching the scene going down in front of them.

"Who do you think is going to win?" she gets more comfortable on the couch and leans more toward Laf in the process. Lafontaine gives her a wary look.

"I think you're developing a gambling problem... it doesn't suit you, Perr." Perry has been betting on every little development in Carmilla and Laura's relationship -- the latest being who will fall in love first -- and seeing as she's actually winning most of the bets and Laf is getting low on money, it's getting pretty high up on their list of things to be concerned about.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Perry sniffs, affronted, and shakes her head dismissively. Lafotaine gives her a knowing look which she ignores.

"Look, something is happening!" she whispers urgently to them and grips their arm to get their attention.

Across the room, they see Laura's hand inching slowly toward the pack of cookies placed equidistant between them just as Carmilla leans forward in her chair. Their gazes are still lasered in on one another's

Suddenly, like a rubber band stretched past its point of elasticity,  the moment snaps and with the strength of a threatened Python Laura's arm shoots forward and nabs the last cookie from the plastic tray, only miliseconds before Carmilla.

"Frilly hell!" Carmilla shouts as she stands up and chases Laura around the table, and Laura tries her best to run away from the angered vampire.

"I got it fair and square!" Perry and Laf watch on with stifled laughter and hands over mouths, holding each other upright.

"I'm faster than you that's not possible!" Carmilla easily catches Laura and traps her against the table, standing inches away from the out-of-breath Laura who can't stop laughing. Carmilla has her own smile plastered to her face as she holds onto Laura.

"I don't know what to tell you, Carm. I'm faster than you," she giggles, and raises her arm up to put the cookie out of reach when Carmilla tries to get it out of her hand. She leans forward, so much so that Laura is bent over backward until she's practically laying on the table with her arm fully extended, their stomachs pressed together and Carmilla gripping her waist and pulling her closer trying to reach further up.

It's clearly a compromising position which, after a few pictures taken, the gingers decide they shouldn't be subjected to watching. Especially when Carmilla and Laura are making very suggestive noises with the struggle of fighting over that cookie.

"G-Guys.. Hey!" Laf says, clearing their throat. The girls pause and look over to the couch where Laf and Perry are sitting, then immediately straighten up and fix their clothing.

"Ginger squad," Carm says shortly, but in her own affectionate way while running her hand through her hair.

"Yes, hello! Didn't see you there," Laura replies quickly while she fixes her shirt which had ridden up while being pressed to the table. The deep red of her cheeks stands out against her yellow cardigan.

"Yes, we could tell," Perry says with a smile.

The awkward silence that ensues is cut short when Laura shoves the cookie in her mouth and runs away. With a sigh and a brief pinch at the bridge of her nose, Carmilla grabs the keys from the dish next to the door.

"I'm going to get more cookies," she calls out. From somewhere within the house, Laura shouts 'yes!' and the stomping sound of her presumable happy dance echos throughout. The love-sick vampire smiles and, after a moment, walks out. Lafontaine digs out their wallet and takes out five dollars.

"You're right. Carmilla's totally whipped."

A triumphant grin spreads across Perry's face and she happily takes the money.

 


	26. To Avoid Heartbreak

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is another one of those metaphorical thingy-mabobs that I write which very loosely relates to Carmilla and people are like Rae wtf is this and I'm like idk it's a thing. 
> 
> So there ya go.  
> 
> If you don't read this as a metaphor it won't make much sense. I mean it will but it'd be kinda weird.

_Tags: Hollstein, angst, wounds, drabble, panther Carm, Carmilla's perspective_

I sank my claws into her skin, reveling in how it hurt me more than it hurt her even though I knew eventually the adrenaline would run out and pain would start to encapsulate her little by little until it is agonizing and her throat is sore from the screams ripped from it. I tell her the pain will ebb, slowly but surely. It does.

The wounds which cradle my claws scab and heal around those ten sharp daggers even slower, but never fully. And I stay embedded in her marred skin, but some days I want to retract my claws. I want to turn inside out and hide the beast inside pale skin so I'll never have to hurt her again, but I know the pain of removal can be just as bad. 

It's futile to wish to turn these matted paws into hands, and these furry flea-ridden arms into ones made of smooth, pale, pink flesh. My heart aches with disappointment. Were it not for my nature maybe I could have been softer, more caring. Maybe soft-padded finger tips could have caressed instead of these claws whose soul intent is to mutilate at even the barest glance.

 


	27. Scotch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My sister has an interesting girlfriend.

_Tags: Hollstein, Fluff, Drunk Carmilla, Angry Drunk, Angst to tooth rotting fluff?, I'm into it._

Laura gets home late to see Carmilla in the kitchen washing the dirty dishes in the sink--or, she supposes, trying to. Her fumbling hands grasp the mayo-smeared cup a little too tight as she scrubs with a soapy sponge in an uncoordinated manner. Seeing the broom and dust pan out in the open, and several shards of glass on the ground, she wonders how many glasses they have left to drink out of. 

Next to her on the counter is a half-empty bottle of scotch that her dad bought for her just a few weeks ago to celebrate her promotion. It was nice to have around, but they never opened it. Well, until now.

"Carm, what are you doing?" The cup in Carmilla's hand clatters into the sink with a sickeningly loud clang as she turns around quickly to face Laura, steadying herself by grabbing the counter. Her glassy eyes are wide like she just got caught doing something she shouldn't have been doing.

"Washing the d-" a hiccup interrupts her sentence, "dishes." 

"Okay..." Laura walks a few steps forward into the kitchen to put her purse on the counter.

"Wa- Watch out, there might be glass on the floor," she says as she leans closer to the blonde reporter. Her breath, as Laura suspected, doesn't smell all too great, but she gives her a peck on the lips anyway. 

"Yeah, there might be..." she kicks a shard of glass toward the dust pan and sighs. Her girlfriend goes back to doing the dishes, picking up the cup she had before--thankfully still intact. "I had a hard day today. That article I spent all weekend writing got rejected and I don't think I can rewrite it even if I tried."

Carmilla makes a noncommittal noise, but Laura continues because Carmilla is drunk and she doesn't expect her to be her usual self when she's drunk.

"And Kirsch, that immature guy? He got two articles published and he barely spent an hour on both of them!" She laughs to herself in disbelief and crosses her arms over her chest. The cup drops again and Carmilla turns around to try to look at her, but she just ends up staring at a spot next to her, probably seeing double. 

"Laura, I don' care!" the words are slurred as they come out of her mouth but they still hold enough bite to them to make Laura's heart flutter painfully. Unfortunately, drunk Carmilla has a lot more to say than sober Carmilla. "You think I wanna hear about office drama? I really couldn' care less about your damn articles, so back off and let me do the soap.. stuff!"

It makes her chest clench and her stomach turn, but she takes a deep breath and lets it go. She stands up straight and uses her 'you're not going out after 8 pm, young lady' voice that she learned from her dad long ago.

"Carmilla Karnstein, I love you so much... but you're drunk and you're being a raging... bad person right now. Come on, put the cups down and get in bed," she says sternly as she holds her hand out, "Now."

"Whatever," the drunk girl mumbles and puts the cup down with the gentleness of a rock through a window, letting Laura take her hand and practically drag her to the bedroom where suddenly Carmilla takes the lead and pushes Laura onto the bed and climbs on top of her, effectively trapping her against the wall and leaving miles of open space on the other side of the bed. Dark hair covers Laura's face when her girlfriend lets her head drop onto her chest and she wraps her arms around her waist tight so she can't move.

"C-Carm," Laura manages, but is met with an obnoxious snore. The wall Laura's side is pressed up into is colder than a witch's tit. She can't not move, so she tries to push Carmilla away unsuccessfully for a few minutes, each time hearing the girl groan in frustration and each time being held tighter and tighter, before giving up entirely.

"For the love of Dumbledore," she mutters, trying to get a tiny bit comfortable.

Eventually, albeit much later, Laura gets to sleep.

\----

"Here, Carm. Advil." She hands the two small pills to her currently incapacitated girlfriend, and smiles when she blinks groggily up at her, flinching at the light.

"Thank yoouu," she groans, then takes the pills with a sip from the water glass she placed on the bedside table. Her girlfriend's hair is a mess of dark tangles, but Laura still wants to run her hands through it. So she does, even though her fingers get caught fifty different times and Carmilla complains more than anything. After seeing how Carmilla can get when she's drunk, she's glad to have her back to normal. The person she was last night wasn't who she was used to, or who she fell in love with.  "what happ'n last night?"

"You..." Carmilla looks at her intently. "You kinda got really drunk and broke a bunch of glasses trying to do the dishes and then yelled at me when I tried to talk about my day."

"oh no," Carmilla groans, putting her head in her hands and rubbing her eyes, fully awake now. When she looks up, she looks like the human representation of guilt and remorse. Laura's heart breaks for her in that moment, and she immediately wraps her arms around her shoulders.

"Hey, no, it's okay! You were drunk, Carm. It's okay."

"I'm sorry, Cupcake... What happened at work yesterday?"

"My article got rejected... but it's not a big deal. I can rewrite it," Laura reassures her, hugging her tighter and kissing her cheek. 

"I'm so sorry. Will and I went out for drinks and I got a bid carried away so he dropped me off here and I found that bottle of scotch your dad gave us. I guess I should have warned you..."

"Shh, don't worry, Carm. I still love you." She smiles and gives her a chaste kiss on the lips before standing back up. "So, pancakes and bacon for breakfast?"

"I would be lost without you, creampuff." They walk into the kitchen and clean up the remaining glass before they get to work on breakfast, talking about random things not pertaining to last night, even though Laura could see Carmilla still felt guilty about it. The rest of the scotch gets thrown out.

\--

"Here," Carmilla says with uncharacteristic shyness. She's holding a fluffy Adipose Doctor Who pillow the size of Laura's head out in front of her, offering it to Laura who is sitting in her chair in the home office where she works on her articles.

"It's so cute! Carmilla!" She stands and grabs the adipose, clutching it to her chest and looking at Carm with love in her eyes.

"I felt like I needed to-" Laura interrupts her with a short kiss, but once it breaks she continues, "make it up to you-" another kiss, "for how I acted-" The next one is longer. Laura puts as much affection into as she can hoping she can somehow show Carmilla how much she's already been forgiven. 

"You're the best. You didn't need to do this, but I love it and it's my new cuddle buddy."

"What, no, I thought I was your cudd-" Laura interrupts her with another kiss which they both smile into, Carmilla holding onto Laura tight, and Laura holding onto the adipose pillow behind Carmilla's back with her arms wrapped around Carmilla's shoulders. 

"My heart has enough room for two," Laura mumbles between kisses. The smile on her girlfriend's face is impossible to kiss away.

 

 


	28. Yellow Pillow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one might be rated slightly above PG-13

_Tags: Hollstein, Fluff, Implied smut_

The middle of the night isn't the best time to wake up--especially when you have to get up early the next day--but here Laura is, tossing and turning in bed, searching for any form of comfort she can find, and feeling overall uncomfortable. Something's missing.

She looks over to the other twin bed to see Carmilla clutching her yellow pillow to her chest. Damn vampire, always stealing things. She tosses her legs over the side of the bed and rolls onto her feet clumsily, untangling herself from her blanket before making her way over to Carmilla's bed.

"Carm," she says to her obstinate roommate. No response. "Carmilla." A poke to the side, then she grabs one corner of the yellow pillow and tugs. Her super-strong roommate holds onto the fluffy yellow mass tighter and peeks one eye open to glare up at her.

"What?" she growls. The 'scary' effect she's going for is cushioned by the pillow she's cuddling. Laura manages not to smile.

"You stole my pillow!" 

"So?" Carmilla closes her eyes again and gets comfortable. The annoyed blonde tugs on the pillow again and groans in frustration when Carmilla rolls onto her back, away from Laura. "What's the problem?"

"I can't sleep without it, Carm!" She checks the time again and sighs. 2:50 AM.

"Neither can I."  She sets the pillow horizontally with her hand resting under it so her head can rest comfortably and looks up at Laura. "So I guess we'll have to share."

"Share? Wha-" Carmilla grabs her arm impatiently and tugs her onto the bed with her until they're only inches apart. Slowly, Laura rests her head on the pillow and gets comfortable hoping. Her hope that Carmilla wouldn't notice her face stark red in the darkness of their dorm room and her heart rate pick up to twice the normal speed is useless. She's a vampire. She notices these things.

"You don't even sleep at night... I don't know why you'd need my pillow anyway, it's not like-"

"Shh, creampuff. You think too much, and it's much too late for thinking," she whispers to Laura softly, placing one hand on her waist when she leans forward to kiss her cheek and feel its soft warmth under her lips. She wants more, but she knows that starting anything right here, right now, would only create more complications in their lives. Laura doesn't trust her, and Carmilla doesn't trust herself not to mess things up. Somewhere in her brain she knows this, but it doesn't stop her from leaving another kiss on her cheek before moving back to the other side of the small pillow. 

"Good night, Carm," Laura says quietly, marveling at the tingly feeling on her left cheek; wishing she had the courage to reach up and bring her forward again to kiss her like she sometimes finds herself daydreaming about doing. It'd be soft and careful, she imagines; quite like how one would try to unwrap a present without tearing the paper, but then it would turn rougher as they got more comfortable and impatient and delved deeper into each other, rushing to get to the present in the box that awaits. 

But that's just fantasy. Carmilla is arguably the worst roommate in the world, and she's stubborn and bossy and she's a vampire, for crying out loud!

So she takes a deep breath and closes her eyes, settling into her small space next to Carmilla and at all costs denying the urge to reach out to her and close the gap, because she knows that if she did she'd be on her like glue.

 

 

\--

 

 

If anything, when Carmilla steals the pillow again the next night, it seems like a direct attack on Laura's quality of sleep. Once is an occurrence, twice is a trend. She wakes up in a cold sweat wrapped up in the unending swirl of blankets and sheets. It takes her a few minutes to figure out how to free her legs, but once she does she looks up to see Carmilla wrapped around her pillow again, staring at her, watching her struggle. 

"Carmilla! It's my pillow," she insists indignantly, wiping a hand across her forehead tiredly to get rid of the cold sweat. 

"Debatable." Her shrug seems to break something inside Laura. She slumps over, defeated, and stands. There's no use in fighting it when she knows that they can feasibly share a pillow and get through the night together without having to fight over it, and her heart won't let her forget how appealing it sounds to sleep next to the obnoxious Vampire. 

"Slytherin's bells," she mumbles angrily under her breath while fixes her bed sheets, "one of these days you're going to regret stealing my pillow."

"It's yet to happen, cutie," she says with a smug smirk when the blonde comes up to her bedside and pulls back the blanket. Laura swallows seeing Carmilla lay there in her loose white tank-top and probably shorter than necessary black boy shorts. Could this get any worse? She slides in next to her, regardless, and it's less uncomfortable than last time. Less uncomfortable like how a millionaire might say he has less money after buying a cheap cup of coffee. 

Yet there is a certain feeling of familiarity and charged wonder between them that was there even the first time Carmilla insisted they share the pillow. When Laura places her head on the yellow fabric this time, it's closer than she placed it before--at least it feels closer.

Carmilla, same as last night, puts her hand on Laura's waist and kisses her cheek once, then again. Knowing she could give two kisses without repercussion, why would she settle for just one? She pulls back, only to find Laura's arm around her, her hand pressing flat in the middle of her back, keeping her close.

"Cupcake, I-" She doesn't know what she would have said, but Laura cuts her off anyway so it doesn't matter.

"Shh... you're thinking too much," she whispers, trying to control the way her face feels like it's burning with Carmilla's proximity. In the sliver of moonlight that shines through the curtains Laura can see Carmilla staring back at her with eyes devoid of any mirth or humor, and Laura thinks, just for a second, is there anybody who can say they would sleep next to someone they didn't at least slightly trust? It was just a fleeting thought, a nonsense question, but it flipped the switch. It was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Carmilla the annoying roommate who steals pillows, to Carmilla who Laura trusts enough to share a pillow with on a small twin-sized mattress, who she daydreams about kissing, who she lets eat her good cookies. 

It doesn't take much to close the gap. They're almost nose to nose already, and as she draws closer her nose nudges Carmilla's before she tilts her head up more. She brushes her lips against the vampire's, light and almost unnoticeable. Carmilla kisses back with just as much pressure and carefully cups her face and moves closer, as to not rip the fragile paper wrapped around them in this moment.  The still quietness that seems to blanket everything in those early morning hours plugs Laura's ears so that the only thing she can hear is her own heartbeat pounding while they kiss.

Shaky breaths fill the open gaps they leave, mingling together and drawing them in again for their lips to meet in another kiss. Laura bites Carmilla's lower lip, and then her tongue is gliding along Carmilla's and drawing out a breathy moan from the vampire that she couldn't manage to stifle in time, but she draws her hand up Laura's spine and sends shivers up it that make her gasp. It's a careful give and take.

But then Carmilla drags her trimmed fingernails down Laura's back, scratching it just barely, and the noise Laura makes isn't at all what she was expecting, but is no less enjoyable. The kiss deepens between them like a vortex, and its gravity draws them in closer to each other. They care less about the tranquility and somnific silence that surrounded them before--it is replaced with breathing and rustling and the sound of lips on lips.

It's a sound that, in any other situation, might've made Carmilla want to turn away and hop on the first plane out of there, but this time she's kissing someone, and not being subjected to gross PDA. And not just someone, Laura Hollis.

And Laura Hollis is kissing her. Biting her lip and tugging on it, and kissing her hard, and needy. She's kissing her like she doesn't know how to do anything else, and Carmilla has no problem with that. 

Later, the wrapping paper they had planned to carefully unfold is torn and abandoned in the midst of passion on the floor next to the bed, and the gift box has been opened thoroughly more than a few times. They finally get to sleep once the sun begins to rise, and Carmilla thinks to herself that no, she definitely will never regret stealing the Yellow Pillow.

 


	29. A Little Respect

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Possibly my most favorite thing I've ever written.

_Tags: Hollstein, Fluff, Erasure- A Little Respect, D.E.B.S_

 

The upbeat piano chord progression begins, and at first Carmilla ignores it and goes about sweeping the floor of their new apartment. In the background the song plays almost at full volume. Their new neighbors will hate them, and Carmilla's counting on that.

_I try to discover_   
_A little something to make me sweeter_   
_Oh baby refrain from breaking my heart_

She clears her throat while sweeping a pile of dust into the pan carefully. Laura will be home any minute now, and she needs to get all the dust swept up before they start unpacking.

_I'm so in love with you_   
_I'll be forever blue_   
_That you gimme no reason_   
_Why you make-a-me work so hard_

She starts singing under her breath, nodding her head along with the beat while she steers the broom around the floor. She tries to tamp down the feeling in her chest, reminding herself of her badass persona that she needs to maintain... but...

_That you gimme no-_

But she feels it building inside of her...

_That you gimme no-_

the urge...

_That you gimme no-_

the unmitigated desire...

_That you gimme no-_

the-

In the blink of an eye, the broom stick becomes a microphone stand, and the floor her stage.

"SOUUUL, I HEAR YOU CALLING  
OH BABY PLEASE~ GIVE A LITTLE RESPECT TOOOOO MEEEEEEEE~"

She lets the music guide her, as she learned to do centuries ago when she learned how to waltz, and then when she learned all about jazz in its uprising, and then when hip-hop came to the forefront of modern dance. She'll never admit it, but she loves dancing.

During the small instrumental between the chorus and the second verse, Carmilla dances around the living room, moving with the beat before quickly turning her head to the right and singing into the end of the broom stick.

"And if I should falter,  
Would you open you arms out to me~  
We can make love not war,  
And live at peace with our hearts~"

She runs a hand through her hair and switches the broom to the other hand, pointing in a random direction with her newly freed hand and singing to the blank wall.

"I'm so in love with you~  
I'll be forever blue~  
What religion or reason,  
Could drive a man to forsake his lover-

Don't you tell me no!  
Don't you tell me no!  
Don't you tell me no!  
Don't you tell me no!"

She jumps up and down with the and when the pre-chorus leads into the chorus, she dips the broom again and sings to it, impassioned with the feel of the music, imagining it's Laura and caressing the imaginary hair.

"Soul~ I hear you calling~  
Oh baby please~ give a little respect to me~"

She takes that moment to look up and see the door standing wide open with one Laura Hollis staring at her in shock. The broom drops with a clatter onto the clean floor.

_I'm so in love with you_   
_I'll be forever blue_   
_That you gimme no reason_   
_You know you make-a-me work so hard_

they stand there staring at each other as the music, Carmilla looking like a deer caught in the headlights.

_That you gimme no_   
_That you gimme no_   
_That you gimme no_   
_That you gimme no_

The next thing Carmilla knows, Laura's on the ground laughing, struggling to get her lungs working again while her body's being wracked with waves of pure unadulterated laughter.

Carmilla stares, unamused, as the music continues.

_Soul, I hear you calling_   
_Oh baby please give a little respect to me_

And between the laughter, the very loud music, and the tenants nextdoor complaining--not to mention the ones below hitting the ceiling with their mic stand- I mean brooms--you can hear a 300 year old vampire's last shred of dignity shatter into a million pieces.

_Soul, I hear you calling_   
_Oh baby please give a little respect to me_

 


	30. Hallway

_Tags: Hollstein, Fluff, Change, Character Study_

The old hallways of her old high school are a nice reminder of how new everything in her life is, like someone hit the refresh button on the page of her life and now everything has been cast with a different light, a different meaning. Those last twelve years of education don't seem like a death sentence anymore now that they're over. 

Even people who go through the toughest of times have the tendency to look back through the glasses of hindsight and see the reality that maybe things were better than they thought they were in the moment. She feels like for almost thirteen years of her life she's been staring at a painting with a microscope trying to figure out what it looks like, and now that she's taken a step back to look at the entire picture, suddenly everything makes sense. 

Time had always played a big factor in her decisions. She needs time to do homework, time to sleep, time to take care of herself and hang out with friends, but while she was taking so much time for herself, she never took the time to look around her and see things for what they really are. This is clearer now more than ever as she looks at the profile of her best friend's face while they walk down the desolate, echoing halls.  

As they walk the halls, Laura looks at Carmilla honestly and without pretense, and realizes that she's objectively beautiful. Beautiful, no doubt, but that's what everyone says in these sappy moments. The sentimental girl realizing the beauty of a friend in the zenith of everything that seems to have come together perfectly to aid that singular moment of realization. No, Carmilla is beautiful but she is so much more than that. She's a rock: jagged in some places and soft and smooth in others--primarily the places where Laura tends to hit the hardest. 

When they first met, Carmilla wouldn't even hug her. Now it's the first and last thing they do whenever they see each other. She's more open to communication and she can even laugh if Laura tries hard enough. She had the pleasure of seeing Carmilla get worn down while trying to keep up her tough exterior. Carmilla turns her head to look at her, and her eyes, which had been staring--almost glaring--straight ahead, soften. A smile spreads across her face which immediately draws Laura's attention to her mouth. It's only enough time for a glance before Carmilla is looking forward again.

The feeling in her chest doesn't register initially. It's soft, warm, and it trickles down to her lungs and warms her stomach like a cup of hot cocoa. Yes, everything is new now, but some things also need to be reevaluated. Including how she feels about Carmilla.

It's not that she never noticed the way her heart sometimes skipped a beat in her friend's presence, or the way their other friends liked to talk about bets behind their backs when they thought they weren't listening--they had actually make a bit of an inside joke about that bit--it's just that she never had time to determine whether or not it was worth chasing; worth the risk.

And then, well, then they graduated.

She knows without a doubt now that on her death bed one of her regrets will be that she didn't take the chance when it showed its face to her--as it has many times in the past at sleepovers and in dark corners at parties. Hindsight is 20-20, and it's a nuisance because it won't stop reminding her of all the times she could have done what her heart told her to, but didn't because of silly and completely temporary reasons. Not anymore.

She stops walking, but to her it feels more like her legs stopped working, and she stands there watching Carmilla walk a few more paces ahead before she stops too.

"Cutie? You okay?"

"Can I-" Laura hesitates and walks closer to Carmilla nervously, taking a deep breath and forcing the words out--though they come out sounding nervous and unsure, "can I kiss you?"

It's as if all the air has been sucked from the hallway. Neither of them breathe for a moment as they stare at each other. It's like they've both been expecting this for so long; like it was an unspoken secret that somehow they both knew and somehow they both figured out that at this point in time everything would be revealed. It just made sense. 

So much has changed, and she's been more than a little scared of things not turning out the way she planned, but now she's staring her fear of change in the face and she's not even flinching. Surely that must count for something.

Quietly, like a whisper of wind blowing through the locker-lined tunnel, Carmilla breathes out an unwavering "yes."

 


	31. Who's your daddy?

_Tags: Hollenstein, fluff, meet the parent, daddy, another half-assed one-shot_

"Ground rules! No fighting in front of my dad, no euphemisms, no-"

"Don't worry, Cream puff; Ginger Giant and I will be on our best behaviors when we meet Papa Hollis," Carm assures her in a cheery tone--well, as cheery as she can manage--as she bumps her shoulder against Danny's bicep. The taller girl rolls her eyes but smiles nonetheless.

"Yeah. I'll keep her in check." She bends down and kisses Laura's forehead, hoping to calm the sugar-filled girl's nerves. It seems to work for the moment, as she feels her sigh and lean forward slightly before Danny pulls away.

"I really want this to turn out well..."

"So do we," Carmilla says honestly and squeezes Laura's hand to provide some form of comfort. With that, they walk up to the front door of the Hollis residence. Laura does the honors of knocking on the door, which opens only a few minutes after. A large, balding man in a lumberjack shirt accepts Laura with open arms, wrapping her in a giant bear hug. Carmilla wonders if Laura thought to bring her bear spray, because they just might need it.

"Dad! I missed you!" Laura yelps out amidst being enveloped in a crushing hug, because as it turns out Sherman Hollis is more of a teddy bear than anything remotely dangerous.

"Oh, I missed you too, sweetie!" Finally he puts her down and stands straight up to look at the two girls standing behind Laura. He sizes them up with a measured stare. Danny can't maintain eye contact for longer than a few moments, but Carmilla meets his stare with one of her own.

"These must be your girlfriends," he says with a smile, no less friendly than before he noticed them, which seems to make both Carm and Danny release a sigh of relief, not having to deal with any judgement for their "impractical relationship"--Carmilla's mother's words, not theirs. "I've heard a lot about you two."

"This is Carmilla Karnstein," Laura says, gesturing to Carmilla on her Left, "and this is Danny Lawrence." She then motions to her right, where Danny stands. Sherman Hollis nods to both of them, and while Danny gives him a nervous smile, Carmilla simply nods in return. 

"I'm glad you're able to handle this little ray of sunshine," he chuckles, and Laura blushes lightly but smiles even wider, if possible.

"Sir," Danny says respectfully.

"Oh, call me Sherman! And come inside, we can get the bags later. You all must be starving. How was the drive?" They follow him through the house and into the living room where there's several trays of food set up.

"It was alright. It wasn't too bad, since I had good company," Laura answers and grins at her girlfriends.

"We took turns driving," Carmilla says and smiles at Laura's eagerness as she gathers some finger food onto a small plate and gives it to her, and then fills another plate for Danny and then for herself before sitting down next to Laura on the black leather couch, Danny on the other side of her. Papa Hollis sits in the worn-down brown chair across from them on the other side of the coffee table. 

"Good! It's always good to be safe!" He says, gathering his own plate before settling back down, "Danny, I heard you're part of the Summer Society?"

She quickly swallows a bite of food and nods, "Yeah, I've been part of it since my first year. It's really an honor to be part of the hunt."

"Hunting is dangerous, you know. Many accidents happen while h-"

"Dad-"

"No, it's fine- we're well trained, si-Sherman. Nobody participates in the hunt without going through extensive training and testing first." Carmilla bites on a celery stick and raises an eyebrow, distinctly remembering an incident where she got an arrow to the chest. But she supposes they can overlook that little indiscretion.

"Good, good. And Carmilla, uh, you're Laura's roommate, I've heard."

"You've heard correctly. I've had a fun time making sure this one doesn't run off to save the day every time a classmate's pet snake gets stuck in a tree." She places an arm around Laura and rests her hand on Danny's clothed shoulder, scratching the fabric lightly.

"That was one time, Carm!"

"One time too many," she scoffs in return. Sherman chuckles and shoves a ranch-soaked broccoli into his mouth.

They continue eating and making small conversation. Papa Hollis asks a few questions, but nothing too pressing. Laura may have warned him that she wouldn't be happy if she had to break up a fight at their first meeting, so he's saving the hard-hitting questions for the next time they decide to visit. 

It's when Laura runs out of food on her plate that it happens. Noticing a plate of cheese and crackers in the center of the table, she says without thinking, "Daddy can you pass me the cheese tray?" 

To her absolute horror, more than one person responds. This is it. This is how she dies.

"Sure," both Danny and her dad reply in unison, both pausing in shock to look at each other. Her dad's eyes are wide and his mouth's dropped open in bewilderment, not knowing how to respond. Danny has a similar expression before she realizes what happened and hastily tries to correct herself.

"Oh sh- I swear, I thought she said Danny! I'm so sorry!" She hides her reddening face in her hands. Carmilla takes that moment to clear her throat and lean forward to grab the cheese tray. 

"I believe she was asking me," she says with a smirk and gives the plate to the red-faced cupcake. "Here you go, cutie."

"T-thanks," Laura squeaks.

It takes a good thirty minutes to get her dad to calm down and stop hyperventilating, and another ten minutes to get Carmilla to stop laughing after she was sure Sherman was okay. Honestly, this is better than Laura expected things to go.

 


	32. Flower Thief

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> got this idea from  http://awful-aus.tumblr.com

_Tags: Hollstein, Fluff & Angst, Prompt_

"Hey! You!" a voice shouts from somewhere behind her. Slowly she turns around, two red roses held carefully between her fingertips to avoid the thorns. A woman with dirty blonde hair stands with her hands on her hips authoritatively, glaring at her. Her nose is scrunched up in her anger. 

"Hello," Carmilla sighs, wanting this to be over with already so she can get to where she needs to go.

"Someone's been stealing my flowers every day for the past month and- you! I finally caught you! God, I've worked so hard on these and you do NOT know how to clip stems properly! Do you know how many times I've had to correct your mistakes?!" She gesticulates with her hands wildly. Anyone too far away to hear would think she was either very angry, or trying to impersonate a wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man.

"I apologize for stealing your flowers," Carmilla sighs, bringing her free hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose, "They're for my girlfriend, and I can't afford to buy any myself."

"Well, if that's true then I forgive you, but I'll need proof."

"Proof of what?"

"Proof that this girl is good enough to warrant flower theft!"

"I- don't have any pictures on my phone," Carmilla answers, feeling her throat swell to the point where it's getting hard to swallow. This was such a mistake. She should've just spent the two dollars to buy the roses, but then where would she get the dollars from?

"Then I guess you'll have to take me to her!" the suddenly chipper girl smiles and bounces on her toes. Carmilla, however, Carmilla's grip on the rose stems tighten and it has her wincing as the thorns poke into her finger tips. "I won't take no for an answer. You owe me for those flowers you stole."

"This way, then," Carm sighs shakily but with an air of confidence and a distinct note of 'fuck it, let's get this over with', but still dreading the moment when this naive girl realizes that they're going to the cemetery to visit her dead girlfriend's grave. 

They begin down the sidewalk, her new acquaintance rambling on about how to properly cut a stem and how simply tearing the stem apart isn't the right way to go about harvesting flowers. All the while, Carmilla stares at the end of the street, where the road cuts off and a dirt road leads up to the iron gates of the grave yard.

"I'm Laura Hollis, by the way."

"Carmilla Karnstein."

"Interesting name..."

"I like to mix it up," she tells her, smiling to herself despite the impending doom she feels with every step they take closer to the street corner where they're meant to cross over. They're about fifteen paces away now.

"Listen, Laura, there's something I have to tell you."

"Don't back out on me now!"

"No, it's- I'm not-... Never mind. We cross here." Carmilla takes Laura's hand in hers and walks quickly across the street and up the beaten dirt path to the iron gate. Suddenly, the hand in hers is jerked away. Carmilla turns around to face her for the second time that day.

"I can't go in there..." she manages to get out. Carmilla sighs.

"You said you wanted to see her," she says with a shrug.

"You didn't tell me she was-"

"You didn't let me. It- I only lost her a month ago, Laura..." Carmilla can't help how her throat immediately closes at her admission. Her eyes brim with unshed tears that have been begging to get out ever since she got that phone call from the hospital when it was already too late to say any last words. Elle was gone just like that. Sudden, like a band-aid, but the pain is never going to go away, it seems.

"I lost my mom when I was ten. I haven't been here since the funeral," she admits, shrugging her shoulders and raising her hands as if to say, 'it is what it is'.  To Carmilla it's everything. To be able to talk to her girlfriend, if not literally then at least symbolically, after she's died gives her comfort beyond the fact that she's in a 'better place'. (Anywhere far away from Earth and its influence is definitely a better place, Carmilla's beginning to suspect).

"Maybe we can do this together," she offers once she's gained control of her voice again, holding out her second rose to Laura. "I know it's sort of weird to place a flower that means 'passionate love' on your mom's grave, but it's the thought that counts. You don't have to."

Carefully Laura takes the flower from her, and they both walk the aisles of the cemetery together searching for the headstones that belong to their loved ones, and along the way they make a plan to meet up every day to place flowers on each stone to honor their memories. 

After almost a year, she begins to look forward to the meetups more than the visit to her former girlfriend, but she makes sure to keep Elle in her memories even as she moves on from what she thought was the greatest love of her life.


	33. 'Bout that...

Tags: Hollstein, Fluff, Asexual Laura

 

Carmilla and Laura are taking it slow. Over the past two months, they've been going on dates, holding hands when they go on long walks, kissing whenever they feel like it, and there's even been a few make out sessions, but nothing more than that. Laura was starting to get nervous that maybe Carmilla wants something more than just cuddling and kissing.

It's not like she intended to hide her sexuality from her girlfriend! It's just... sort of happened that way. Things kept getting in the way, and she could never find the right time to say it. Okay, maybe there were a lot of good times to bring it up, but Laura's afraid this will change things. 

The last two months have been great, and... what if taking sex off the table ruins their relationship? Or what if Carmilla tries to pretend like everything's okay but then starts to resent her for not giving her what she needs?! 

 But she knows, and always has known, that one day she'll have to come out and say it. Funny concept, having to come out to your girlfriend. 

The best moment might not be while her hands are getting increasingly more adventurous, finding their way up Laura's shirt as her lips leave a trail of soft kisses down to her neck, but what can she do? It might be cutting it close, but there's no time like the present!

It's when Carmilla's knee finds its way between her legs that she finally speaks up.

"C-Carm, wait," she pants, grabbing the wrist of one of her vagabond hands. Almost immediately, Carmilla pulls back to look into her eyes. The pressure is real.

"Yeah?"

"I- um," she clears her throat and takes a deep breath, but nothing can get the words out of her mouth in a coherent sentence that Carmilla would understand. "I- I'm on my period!"

Carmilla just stares at her and tilts her head to the side before simply saying, "You're not."

"What? Wh- How do you know?" Laura leans up on her elbows and furrows her eyebrows, confused.

"Cupcake, I'm a vampire. I can..." she shakes her head, "smell."

"Wait, so- every time-"

"Yes."

"Is that how you always know when to buy chocolate cupcakes for me?" Laura asks in a touched tone. Carmilla is the sweetest thing ever, besides actual sweets. Nothing can top those. Her girlfriend smiles and kisses the tip of her nose before she rolls off of Laura to sit cross-legged next to her.

"What is this about, Laura? I've noticed you've been off lately, whenever we..." she trails off, not needing to finish her sentence for them both to understand. The cupcake sits up as well and leans against the headboard, figuring she might as well get comfortable before she has to get very uncomfortable.

"Well... I maybe.. I might possibly... sort of, kind of be.. a little bit asexual." She holds up her hand with her index finger and her thumb a few inches apart to illustrate.

"Just a little?" Carmilla treats her with the most patience a girl doing her best to get her words out could ask for. She grabs Laura's hands and brings it down between them so she can run her thumb over the back of her girlfriend's hand.

"I'm not sure I ever want to... have sex. It's not about you! Trust me, you're beautiful and amazing- you're the perfect girlfriend..."

"But you don't like sex," Carmilla finishes and squeezes Laura's hand. The blonde nods and looks down at their hands. "Laura-"

"I'm sorry if it's disappointing, and if I led you on I feel terrible. I didn't know the right time to tell you, and then you were doing all this stuff with your lips and hands and your- your knee... I'm sorry. I understand if you.. don't want to be with me."

She feels a hand cup her cheek and then she feels a pair of lips pressed to the opposite one over and over again until a final kiss is pressed to her lips, soft, chaste. 

"I'm okay with you being asexual," Carmilla whispers, holding Laura's face so she meets her eyes, which look so sure compared to the potent mixture uncertainty and relief deeply ingrained in Laura's. "Come on, we can cuddle and watch a movie for the rest of the night and I can cook you breakfast in the morning. Sound good?"

"Yeah, that's perfect," she whispers back, kissing Carmilla again sweetly and then letting herself be guided into Carm's arms so that her head rests on her chest. They search for a movie and decide to watch that new Pixar film that came out recently that they've both been dying to see. But Laura's mind won't let it rest, and soon she's being consumed with all sorts of questions before the intro has even finished. She presses pause.

"Do you not want to have sex with me?" she asks inquisitively. Carmilla laughs and smiles wide, brushing Laura's hair away from her face and back behind her ear.

"Cutie, have you seen yourself? Of course I want to... but I care about how you feel more. I want you to be happy more than anything, and I don't want to pressure you into doing something you don't like to do or are not comfortable doing."

"Oh, so... if, in the future-"

"Unless you decide one day that you want to give it a shot, I'm perfectly okay without it," she answers without hesitation, "I just want to be with you."

"Do you mind if I ask... have you ever been in a relationship with a person who is asexual before?"

"Yes and no... it was more of a platonic thing, really. But I've lived long enough to realize sex isn't everything. I certainly had time to get used to not having it when Mother buried me six feet under. Trust me, Cupcake, nothing you can do will ever make me not want to be by your side."

Quickly, Laura hugs Carmilla tight to hide her tears. She had been crushed when Danny didn't understand what being asexual meant. 

(Laura Hollis isn't a plant or any other self-reproducing organism, just to clear up any confusion.)

But when Carmilla hugs back just as tight, she know's she's never going to have to worry again about someone crossing the line she had carefully placed in the sand. They press play on the movie and spend the rest of the night trading sweet kisses and laughing at the movie together, and then fall asleep in each others arms.

 


	34. Destined

_Tags: Hollstein, Drabble, Fluff, implied smut, soft and sleepy mostly_

When thin pale arms wrap around her waist in the middle of the night, she feels safe. After dying and then coming back to life after being hunted day and night by the Dean, the only time she feels safe--really, truly safe--is when she's in Carmilla's arms.

Not when people are rushing around her at top speed trying to get the next big story or be the next big break. Not when she has to find a way to get up out of bed to walk away from those same arms for at least until noon when they meet up for lunch and talk about everything (and occasionally nothing when they're too busy kissing).

No, only now, when it's just her and Carmilla and their bed, whenever they manage to get into it.

When Laura's had a long day at work and Carmilla's had a difficult time job hunting--or attempting job hunting, because let's be honest, what she's best at is being there for Laura and loving her--they fall into each others arms, at times, like second nature, like native language.

At other times it's like waves, oceans, hurricanes, tornados. The amazing, earth-shattering natural disaster that is them being together.

It reminds her she's alive, and Carmilla's alive, and they're both living and breathing with actual beating hearts that can slow down, speed up, and skip beats with just the right gesture.

So when Laura feels Carmilla slide into bed behind her and wrap her arms around her waist, she snuggles back into her and whispers a quiet, "I love you." When she feels it, rather than hears it, mouthed against the nape of her neck in between good night kisses, she's finally able to sleep.

 


	35. Vibrator

_Tags: Fluff, Hollstein, Papa Hollis_

Laura Hollis, at seventeen years old, definitely isn't the most innocent person, but she definitely has her moments.

It was a warm summer night and she had just gotten home from Carmilla's house, and as per usual she goes to the bathroom to brush her teeth before bed. Her dad wasn't there when she walked in, so she assumed he was on a patrol doing his police-ly duties, or he went to bed early. Really, with seventeen years of living with Sherman Hollis, she should have known better.

Her day with Carmilla had been like every other day spent with her very best friend of almost eight years. Of course, there was laughter and jokes, but there was also a certain sense of comfort that enabled them to do more personal stuff together, like a buy toothbrushes for each other's houses. And Laura figured, why not get a new tooth brush?

The one she'd been using was in dire need of replacement for weeks, maybe even months--though it isn't pleasant to think about. The bristles were bent beyond repair due the vigorous brushing she has to put it through to get the candy and sweets cleaned from her teeth.

Even with all of the sugar she eats, she's rarely ever gotten cavities. She sort of prides herself on that fact. She remembers how Carmilla laughed for a good five minutes when she proudly declared that she's been a "Clean Toother Scout" at her local children's dentists office for six years running.

In the mirror she sees her teeth bright and shiny as she smiles at the memory.

Without hesitation, she takes her new toothbrush out of its packaging (the inane packaging which she never quite understood, to be honest) and holds it up to the light.

It's average sized, white with pink accents, and it's quite thick at the handle due to the batteries which rotates the bristles on the other end. The buttons to operate it lie on the inside of the handle where you place your thumb, for easy access.

Carmilla insisted she get the electric toothbrush because it's supposed to "reach between the teeth," but Laura knows most of that is B.S. anyway. Carmilla looked happy when she agreed, though, so she supposes she can't complain about it if it made her friend smile so wide.

Without further delay, she wets the bristles with a short burst of water from the faucet and grabs the silver tube from the cabinet built into the mirror. A thick white line is spread onto the end of the toothbrush slowly. Every time Laura brushes her teeth, she tries her best to make it look like it does in the commercials, but rarely does it ever turn out well.

She bares her teeth and brings the toothbrush up, turning it on before starting to brush her pearly whites (okay, pearly off-whites because nobody's perfect) in small circles, making sure to brush along her gums.

Immediately, the bristles move. They rotate and extend and move back in forth in every direction while the small motor hums loudly. She grips the vibrating handle tighter, afraid she'll accidentally slip and punch herself in the face or something. (Not like it's happened before. Heh.)

But she can't say she notices any difference. Sure, it feels different, but the result is still the same. She's still going to have brushed teeth when she goes to bed. Nevertheless, she keeps at it, making sure to get all of her teeth from every angle physically manageable and spitting frothy toothpaste out when necessary all the while the toothbrush whirrs loudly.

About a minute in, she's busy brushing her back molars and was spitting out some toothpaste when the door bursts open behind her and her dad storms in.

"LAURA, I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING IN HERE AND I DO NOT APPROVE, YOUNG LADY!!" He shouts, pointing his accusing finger at her reflection. She stares at him, wide eyed, and turns off the toothbrush. "YOU'RE TOO YOUNG TO BE USING A-"

"A toothbrush?"

"YES, I- Wait, a toothbr- What?" He stammers, looking a lot less stern than when he barged in, and very confused. Laura holds up the toothbrush while subtley wiping some excess paste from the side of her mouth.

"I got a new toothbrush. Do you not approve of electric toothbrushes? I'm sorry, Dad. Carmilla wanted me to get it, so..."

"No, no... you're... fine. Good night, Sweetie," Sherman sighs, scratching the back of his head and huffing as he leaves Laura to her toothbrush.

"Night, Dad!"

Laura stares at the stick in her hand for a minute. Weird.

After she finishes brushing her teeth, she climbs into bed and grabs her phone.

 **Cupcake** : My dad came into the bathroom while I was brushing my teeth and said he didn't approve of me using an electric toothbrush

 **Carm** : Maybe he didn't like how loud it vibrated? ;)

 **Cupcake** : What? WAIT! YOU DID THIS!

 **Carm** : mmmhm?

 **Cupcake** : YOU TRICKED ME INTO BUYING THIS TOOTHBRUSH TO FREAK MY DAD OUT! >:(

 **Carm** : No, that's unrealistic. How could I have known that would happen?

 **Cupcake** : be honest and we can go to that park you like tomorrow? :D

 **Carm** :  Okay, fine... I might have persuaded you into buying the something that's basically a vibrator for your mouth.

 **Cupcake** : :( I knew it! Carm...

 **Carm** : At least now you have something to keep you company when I'm not around

 **Cupcake** : THAT WAS ONE TIME!

 **Carm** : One time wasn't enough, was it?

 **Cupcake** : ...Good night, Carm! See you tomorrow!

Her phone vibrates with a new text and instead of reading it, she turns the vibration off and closes her eyes. With a sigh, she covers her face with her hands, knowing that she must be red as a tomato.

Well, who hasn't accidentally had sex totally on purpose at least once with their very best friend?! It happens to everyone! Right? _Right_?!

 _No, one time wasn't enough_ , she thinks to herself, frustrated, and eventually drifts off to a Carmilla-filled dreamland. 


	36. It was innocent

_Tags: Hollenstein sort of, no relationship but hollenstein potential implied, fluff_

Carmilla and Danny were stopped in their tracks when the tiny gay Laura Hollis slid in front of them on the pathway back to the dorms.

"Hey, guys! Weird seeing you two together," Laura comments, gesturing between them. It's true, their names are well known around this campus as incompatible on every level (well, almost every level). Anyone who knew one would probably accuse the other in the event of a murder.

Laura knows this better than most, though, having dated both of them in the past--but, unfortunately for the both of them, no longer.

She spent long hours doing her best to keep them from tearing each other apart when it came to their competitive nature, and she finally decided not too long ago that it wasn't worth it to have both of them fight over her and lose one of them as a friend in the long run.

"Almost as weird as not seeing you with Laf," Danny says trying her best to change the topic. She shifts from one foot to the other and winces.

"Oh, are you okay? Are you hurt?" Laura puts a hand on Danny's elbow, which Carmilla instantly glares at but ultimately ignores, still feeling smug and sated from what happened earlier.

"N-no, it's okay I'm just sore. Really, it's alright, Laura." She tries. She does. But Laura Hollis, investigator extraordinaire, knows how to put two and two together.

Danny's hair is a barely contained mess, and so is Carmilla's. Danny has a sheen of sweat coating her forehead even though it's barely 60° outside. Danny's legs are sore and she's acting evasive and closed off. Carmilla has more of a smug face than usual. It can't be... holy hufflepuff...

"YOU TWO HAD SEX?!?" Laura's voice raises three octaves and four decibels. "OH MY- HOLY-" Both Carmilla and Danny scramble to hide their faces to keep their dignities intact. As Danny tries to figure out how Laura put 2 and 2 together to get 1698, Carmilla is the one to face the bewildered girl.

"Cupcake, Cupcake! Calm down," she says with a short laugh, nonetheless looking prideful.

Danny crosses her arms over her chest, blushing beet red and glaring at passerbyers who deign to look their way.

"I thought you hated each other!"

Carmilla sighs and looks over at Danny, biting her lip to keep from laughing. Danny whispers something angrily to her. Carmilla laughs and shakes her head, which makes Danny deflate.

"Guys! Feeling pretty third wheel over here."

Danny and Carmilla look at Laura. Carmilla with her innocent yet smug expression, and Danny with her resignated sigh.

"Speak up, Clifford. Tell Laura what we did yesterday," Carmilla commands, winking suggestively at the cupcake. "All day"

Laura blushes deeply, not know why the thought of her exes doing- that... makes her feel warm inside. Quickly she looks over to Danny as she hears her begin to speak.

"We... wehadajumpingcompetitionatfunzone." It was rushed, and therefore did not satisfy Carmilla.

"A.. what?" Laura asks weakly, not understanding a single thing that was happening.

"A competition to see who could jump the highest... at fun zone.."

"The place with the.." Carmilla trails off, expecting Danny to fill in the blanks.

"Bouncy castles," Danny sighs with her eyes closed.

"for..."

"Children..."

"And who won?" Carmilla smirks

"Carmilla..."

"See? Was that so hard?" Carm asks in a baby voice, ruffling Danny's already messed up hair and shooting a genuine smile over to Laura.

Laura simply laughs and walks away, all too used to the unpredictable nonsense Carmilla and Danny do to prove who's better. In Laura's opinion, they're equal, but she'll never tell them that.

 


	37. Distance

_Tags: Hollstein, Fluff, LDR_

They met online four months ago when Carmilla responded to one of Laura's tweets and sparked a conversation that evolved into a relationship of sorts. They talked nearly every day, letting their conversations evolve between good nights and good mornings. 

First they talked about books they loved to read, and then about college experiences, and then they went onto government corruption and politics, and from there who knows what they were going to talk about next? 

They Skyped and called each other whenever they could--sometimes even in the middle of the night when Laura had work the next day and so did Carmilla. They only lived four states away and the time difference wasn't too big of a deal most days--only two hours, but most days neither of them wanted to hang up because, even if they didn't know it yet or didn't think it possible, they were falling in love through social media and miles upon miles of distance.

Nearly a month ago, Carmilla called Laura in the middle of the night.

"Carm?" Laura answered groggily, rubbing her eyes and yawning. On the other end, Carmilla fidgeted with nervous excitement and took some steadying breaths.

" _Hey, Cupcake._ "

"What's wrong? It's like... 3 am here."

" _I'm sorry I woke up up, Laura,_ " Carmilla pauses and stares at the screen of the laptop in front of her, wondering if she should just say it. She couldn't get to sleep knowing she had this big news. She couldn't wait until their noon phone call the next day. 

Laura's almost fully awake at this point with the sudden phone call and Carmilla acting strange. Usually when they call each other this late it's planned, or it's an early phone call that's running a lot longer than usual. " _I bought a plane ticket,_ " she finally manages to say. She bites her lip to keep from smiling.

"A.. ticket? You-" The blonde sits up in bed and holds the phone closer to her ear to make sure she's hearing her right.

" _Yeah, Laur. I'm gonna come see you._ "

"Holy Hufflepuff! When? Now? Can it be now? We can cuddle!" On the other end Carmilla laughs with her.

" _I wish, but it's at the end of the month. The 28th._ "

"Carm! That's too far away," she sighs, flopping back onto the bed with one hand holding her phone to her ear and the other outreached as if Carmilla's right there. In her mind she is, at least. So close she can almost reach her, but not quite. That's what's most frustrating about long distance relationships, in her opinion. 

" _I know, Cream puff, but it's worth the wait_ ," Carmilla says quietly into the receiver, shutting her laptop and moving it to the side so she can lay down. 

If this were some romantic movie, they would place shots of them laying in their own individual beds side by side and it would look like one completes the other: Laura laying with her hand outstretched, and Carmilla laying just where her hand ends staring at where Laura lays. 

They started up Skype and talked for the rest of the night about what they'll do once they're finally face to face.

Everything that's happened up until this point feels wholly irrelevant, because Laura's sitting at Gate B looking at the people pouring out of the small walkway that leads out to the runway, and she's so anxious her hands are shaking. She can barely breathe with everything that's going on in her head and her heart. 

Carmilla walks down that same walkway looking around, searching for one face in particular. The one reason she bought a plane ticket on a whim one night and spent twenty six days actually looking forward to spending three hours on an airplane with nothing good to eat. She can't wait to-

Out of nowhere a body slams into hers fully and two arms wrap around her in a tight hug, She barely has time to register the blonde hair before she's being blinded by it. This isn't entirely what she expected, but she hugs back just as tight. Her heart feels on the edge of exploding with how relieved she is to finally be in Laura's arms and to hold her back just as tight. 

"Laura," she whispers reverently into the soft hair that's trying to choke her. They do a small sort of dance, where they spin in a circle as they hug, rocking back and forth in each other's arms because finally, finally, they have more than 1's and 0's. More than artificial contact. More than words and texts.

Laura kisses Carmilla's cheek. The feel of Laura's lips on her skin sends Carmilla's heart an extra jolt of 'holy fuck this is real'. She kisses Carmilla's cheek again, barely pulling away before tilting her head to kiss the corner of Carmilla's mouth, entirely too addicted to the feeling already.

Carmilla smiles and tilts her head ever so slightly until their lips are barely touching, and then she closes the gap and kisses Laura like she's dreamed of doing for the past two months, maybe longer. It's probably too intense for such an open area, but they're too in the moment to care at this point. 

Their lips fit together like puzzle pieces. They finally feel complete.

 

\--

 

Once they get Carmilla's luggage from luggage claim, they get out of the airport and into Laura's car relatively quick. Before Laura can start the car, though, Carmilla takes the newfound privacy to continue what they started in the middle of the airport. She entwines her fingers with Laura's and tangles her other hand in blonde hair as she brings Laura towards her to connect their lips. 

"Woah there, lady killer," Laura says between kisses, but Carmilla's tongue brushes against hers and she melts like candy in her mouth, happily deepening the kiss and letting her hands travel to Carmilla's sides, roaming under her leather jacket. Carmilla runs her thumb across Laura's knuckles and draws her closer, biting her lip gently and pulling on it. 

"I've been wanting to kiss you for so long," Carmilla tells her once they break for air. She smiles and glances down at Laura's lips and then back up at her eyes which shine equally as bright as hers in the dimness of the car. Laura can't help but agree and give her one more chaste kiss while Carmilla untangles her hand from Laura's hair to push a strand behind her ear carefully.

"Me too, Carm, but..." Laura sighs as Carmilla kisses her cheek, "we can't stay in this car forever. We have things to do."

"Says who?" the brunette argues, tilting her head against the headrest on her seat while she draws a line across Laura's cheek with her thumb. The blonde leans into the touch and smiles as if she finally realized it was real.

"Says me. Now let's go!" she turns back to the steering wheel, keeping her hand in Carmilla's and turns the key in the ignition.

 

  
Their first stop is a park. It's big and very green, with all of the trees and flowers that dot the sides of fences and are planted around the center of the green space. Some are big and towering while others are more like tall bushes. There are people sitting on the benches by the medium sized pond toward the center, drinking at the various fountains, and letting their pets play in the grass.

Laura and Carmilla take the liberty of laying in the grass in one of the more empty parts of the park, due to the vast amount of trees in this section which seem to block out the sun on such a nice sunny day. They lay side by side in the quiet, hand in hand as they look up at the branches with Spanish moss hanging in bundles like raggedy beards. 

"When I was in elementary school," Laura starts, her voice shaky with disuse for once in her life, "at recess we used to take the bugs out of the moss.. the chiggers, and we'd make homes for them."

"Don't they bite?" Carmilla asks, looking over to her girlfriend with a concerned expression. Laura laughs and shakes her head at the memory of digging around to find the small red bugs that'd had the misfortune of falling from their nest of gray twine string. 

"Yeah, but we didn't know that. They never bit us, and it was nice... to give them a home," she tells her, smiling up at the trees. Carmilla scoots closer to her and maneuvers her arm so it's wrapped around Laura, who places her head on Carmilla's shoulder. Their hands remain tangled together across Laura's stomach. 

"Tell me more about your childhood, Cupcake," Carm sighs and closes her eyes. 

They lay like that for almost an hour before they start to feel the effects of laying in one position for too long. When they're finally standing, Laura gets this mischievous smile as she leans against Carmilla and presses her lips to hers for a quiet moment. The brunette barely has time to respond before Laura pulls away and starts running.

"Tag, you're it!" she yells. Carmilla laughs and rolls her eyes, but chases after her through the trees.

After a few minutes of chasing and dodging around trees, Carmilla finally catches her around the waist and pushes her against a tree, kissing her soundly while they laugh breathlessly into each other's mouths and try not to smile. 

 

  
"That'll be $5," the street vendor tells them. Carmilla pulls out her wallet and hands over $5 and some change while Laura takes the two cups and hands one to Carmilla. They walk away and sip happily at the hot cocoa.

"You didn't have to pay for that," Laura comments, smiling into her cup. Carmilla bumps her shoulder against Laura's lightly as they walk side by side down the sidewalk.

"What kind of gentlewoman would I be if I didn't, Cupcake?" The blonde scoffs and shakes her head.

"I'll get the next one." 

 

  
The rest of the day is spent walking downtown together, hand in hand, and looking at the various shops. But if we're honest, they both spent more time looking at each other than at the shops. It was a game of trying to be caught looking by each other. When Carmilla would look, Laura would conveniently be looking away. 

Laura made Carmilla promise never to mention how at one point, Carmilla looked over at Laura to see her looking at a sex shop. Her face turned almost as red as their specialty dildos.

 

  
They find Laura's car and get back to her apartment by 8 pm. Almost immediately, they fall into bed and lay in each other's arms, exhausted from the hours of walking. Soft kisses are traded back and forth.

"I'm glad you're here," Laura says and smiles when Carmilla gives her a light kiss. 

"Me too," she sighs and presses her lips to the Cupcake's more firmly, yet still as soft as all the rest. They bask in the moment knowing that just yesterday they there hundreds of miles apart and wishing they were together. Everything has changed in the best way.

 

 


	38. Kisses

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drew inspiration from an old Rose & Rosie video for this.

_Tags: Hollstein, Fluff_

I look at the mess of blonde hair sitting next to me. The one who's focused intently on the movie that, technically, I'm supposed to be watching too. The one who shoves handfuls of salty popcorn into her mouth while her gaze is glued to the screen, and doesn't even noticed that I'm seriously struggling to keep my eyes to myself right now because tonight is... tonight is something.

It's no special occasion. We have movie nights at least once a week, and that doesn't take into account the non-movie nights where we go out to eat or simply hang out together.

Basically what I'm trying to say is I spend all my time with the beautiful and talented Laura Hollis, and on occasion I watch her watch a movie and eat popcorn.

I've been working on trying to sound a bit less helpless and pathetic about it, but in my opinion it's a waste of time. Laura is too good for this world, and I am too gay to not notice.

Laura is my best friend/coworker/partner in crime or whatever you want to call it. We're stronger together, but that doesn't mean the blonde doesn't have the ability to render me utterly useless.

It's during a particularly gorey scene that Laura flinches away and our eyes meet. We're only sat a few inches apart, so it'd be easy to just lean in, but her eyes captivate me. Something in them is soft, like a warm hug that I want to fall into.

If that's not sickeningly sweet, then I want to know what kind of sweets you've been eating because I'm about to throw up.

But this is Laura Eileen Hollis we're talking about. Esteemed coworker, devout friend, love of my life.

So I gather up my usual cool-girl persona and try to sound disaffected as I glance down at her mouth and tilt my head to the side.

"You got some... lips... on your lips.." With that, I lean closer and brush my nose against hers, wanting to give her time to pull away if she wants to.

What I get instead is esteemed coworker, devout friend, love of my life Laura Hollis bursting out laughing right in front of my face. It hurts. Not gonna lie.

You try your best to be smooth and this is what you get in return...

"Wh-Why are you laughing!" I ask, as if I didn't already realize that I blew this whole thing. All of the emotions I built around this one moment for the past three years since I met Laura Hollis have come crumbling down around me. Sue me if I find it a little bit hard to keep my cool.

"Noo, Carm!" Laura laughs, grabbing my hand to keep me from standing up. "I'm sorry...  it's just! three years of beating around the bush and that's what you come up with?"

"Thr- What?"

"I've... I think I've been falling for you since the day you walked into my office," Laura admits sheepishly. I relax and let a smile take over my face, which happens once in a blue moon on a leap year.

"Really?" My grin only widens, and Laura's almost matches it.

"What happened to the badass sales rep I knew?" Laura sighs and musters up her straight (yet still helplessly gay) face, cupping my cheek and drawing me closer, back to where we were before Laura started laughing.

"You have no idea what you do to me, Cupcake..." I breathe out against her lips, reveling in how all I can smell is Laura, Laura, Laura.

"Show me."

Our lips meet finally, and she tastes like popcorn--salty, buttery, and delicious.

We finally kiss after three years or so of denying what I knew (what we both knew) was between us. Three years of kisses we could have had. Three years of lost time we have to make up.

And look at all the future that lays ahead of us.


	39. In the name of love

_Tags: Hollstein, Prompt fill, Fluff and badassery, Sorry if it's bad!_

Carmilla throws her phone against a concrete wall when Silas's beloved hero refuses to answer her calls for the third time. You'd think, after Carmilla tried to hard to entice her with lofty heists and fancy acquisitions. This is what she's good at. It's all she knows how to do... so why isn't it working?

It started small, with just a few petty thefts when Carmilla first met the famous "Sun-trance". The hero risen from the ashes to stun all of Silas and kick ass in the meantime. Carmilla had just done it to get her attention and spend some time with her, up close in personal. Sure, they were kicking and punching each other, but really what was the difference between that and... other... strenuous activities?

It was nice at first. Carmilla could even see Sun-trance smile from time to time when she found out that it was the brunette behind the illegal activity of the day. But soon it grew out of hand... Carmilla never was a rebellious person... per se.. her mother was too strict for her to act out much, but perhaps that's what made having the power to steal everything she wanted so addicting.

What she wants? Well... Sun-trance is pretty high up on that list. Carmilla, realizing that the blonde is an actual human being behind her mask and not a possession to be stolen or traded, figured that she should keep doing what she was doing, and steal her way to the top until the blonde goddess had no choice but to notice her and be impressed with her.

Now, though, now Sun-trance won't even pick up her phone to rush to the nearest robbery, choreographed and performed by Silas's own villain, the Panther. She's probably too busy with other, more important threats to bother with her petty thievery and small bank heists.

She realizes, as she stares down at the fractured pieces of her touch screen, she knows what she needs to do next.

\--

One by one, alarms blared through the skies of Silas City, signaling Panther's greatest heist yet. Each one originates from a different bank, a distress call, an SOS. While the police are occupied with the money slowly draining from the banks and into Panther's off-shore account, Panther breaks into town hall and demands surrender. The government is too weak to fend off the attack, and the mayor has no choice but to hand over his crown. The Panther takes Silas in less than five minutes tops.

That's a world record, in her opinion.

\--

"She did what?!" Laura shouts. Lafontaine holds their tablet closer to their chest and clears their throat. Yelling wasn't entirely unexpected when it came to Laura.

"As of... five minutes ago, Panther now owns... all of Silas City. It's hers."

"What..." she turns away, knotting her hands in her hair at the top of her head and pulling it in frustration. "Where was I?"

"Shoving cookies into your mouth, Ma'am." Laura turns around and shoves everything off of a nearby desktop, growling in her rage at the poor scientist.

"Dammit, Lafontaine!!" She yells, enraged, "Why did you buy more cookies?! You know they're my weakness!"

"If-If it helps, she's at the town hall right now- I.. and she's gone. Okay." Poor Laf. They know Laura will apologize later for being so angry, as she usually does, but they're still concerned and hoping that the girl's anger won't disable her ability to see right from wrong.

\--

Laura practically flies over to town hall. Not literally--that'd be insane. She hops off her motorcycle after parking sloppily in front of the building, and then rushes inside, reaching to her utility belt to find... oh, fuck. It's a wooden spoon.

The hell is she going to do with a wooden spoon against an infamous criminal?! True, she's fought with less, but today could be different. Panther has never went this far before, so who knows what she could do next? Not one to waste a good tool, she clutches the spoon in her hand and runs down the rest of the hallway to the large solid wood doors at the end.

She takes a deep breath before swiftly kicking open the doors to the mayor's office and barging in. In such a stunningly dramatic and utterly cliche fashion, the long-backed leather chair spins to reveal the one and the only Panther with her hands resting on her crossed legs, her head tilts to the side, and with it her long brunette hair falls slightly in front of her deep brown eyes, which take their time in sizing Laura up. How can someone look so intimidating when sitting down?

Finally, the criminal speaks.

"Hey, Sundance," Panther says nonchalantly in her raspy voice with a smirk plastered to her face in such a way that's so infuriatingly... Laura doesn't even know how to finish that sentence.

"It's Sun-trance," Laura spits out, gritting her teeth and fixing her eyes onto Panther's. While Laura's tense and obviously full of rage, Carmilla stands from the chair smoothly and steps around the large wooden desk, revealing the skin-tight leather pants she's wearing that hug her long legs just right. She also wears a black T-shirt which Laura notes that, while almost entirely informal for the occasion, it doesn't draw away from her overall hotness-level... and she's definitely going to blame that thought on the cookies she just ate....

"Whatever you wanna tell yourself, cutie." The brunette picks up one of the trinkets resting on the mayor's desk. A snow globe. Panther shakes it and watches the white flakes fall to the bottom of the globe slowly where a miniature recreation of Silas city sits. She imagines the snow as white hot fire raining down on the city. Maybe that would impress Sun-trance.

"Panther, stop what you're doing!"

"It's your fault, you know." Carmilla shrugs, putting the snow globe back onto the desk and turning toward Laura.

"Oh, so now it's my fault that you robbed banks and overthrew the local government!?!"

"I did it for you... for love. If you had just picked up the phone, it wouldn't have happened." Sun-trance rolls her eyes at the thought of love, ignoring the jump in her chest and throwing her arms up in the air in exasperation. She waves the wooden spoon around, to Carmilla's confusion. She hadn't noticed it before.

"God, you have such a... a _complex_! You can't just _do_ this!"

"But I did, Cupcake... Spandex Savior..." Carmilla takes a few steps closer to Sun-trance so that they're mere feet away and leans closer as she whispers, "Cookie monster."

Laura quickly wipes at her face, afraid there's still crumbs left, but at Panther's satisfied smirk she quickly balls her fists back up at her sides and maintains her hard stare and stern voice. "My name is-"

"I know your name, cutie..." she cuts her off quickly, taking a few more paces closer, making sure the hero sees her bite her lip, "but I'd much rather prefer hearing you scream mine."

Sun-trance almost manages to look upset at the idea, but the way her face heats up almost immediately is all too telling, and the hero knows it. Can feel it, on her face and between her legs. Can see it reflected in Panther's dilated pupils.

"N-Not going to happen... not when you do this and say it's for... for love. This isn't love."

"Love means different things to different people," Carmilla reasons with her. She can see the moment when Sun-trance gives up her hero persona and starts acting like a normal human. The way her eyes soften and the thin line of her lips turns into a frown. Her shoulders hunch and she takes a step forward with her hands held out, palms up in a pleading gesture.

"Then... If you want to prove your love to me, then show me how you can be good. Don't do this."

"I thought... I thought you wanted this." Panther whispers, in sudden realization. Damn, does she feel stupid right now. Sun-trance shakes her head.

"I thought you were... silly.. and in over your head. At first. but now I know what you're capable of. This isn't a game, Panther. You can't win me over like this. I put people like you in prison. How could we be together if you're in prison? Did you even think for one second how this plan would work out? What, did you think that I would give up my morals to run away with you? Run away from the city I love and the people I care about to be with you, someone without morals and without any real human connection besides what she creates in her head?!"

"...S-...Sorta," Carmilla acquiesces weakly, looking at the ground. Sun-trance is far from finished, though. She stares the girl down and pokes her finger at her chest as she takes a step forward.

"You could have gotten closer to me by joining my side, Panther. Did that even occur to you at one point in your little plan to... to woo me? God, what sort of person do you have to be to go to these lengths... to overthrow a government just to get the girl, without even considering what the girl would want in the first place?! Who the hell raised you?"

"Th-" Carmilla backs into the desk and grabs the edge as Laura stands only inches away from her, glaring intensely all-the-while ranting.

"No, I'm not done! If you wanted to be with me, you could have done it so much better than this! When I walk out of this building, you're going to do whatever you can to return all of the money to those banks. Return everything that you possibly can, and what you can't return, give it to charity," she bites out, poking into Panther's chest painfully, thought the broody girl still manages to keep mostly calm in the face of a raging storm.

"Bu-"

"Everything!"

"Sund-"

"I don't want to hear it. I'm going to leave now... You're going to make the transfers.. and when that's done, we'll see about getting a drink."

Sun-trance gives Panther a lingering kiss on the cheek before she leaves, slamming the large broken door behind her. Carmilla stares after her, leaning against the desk with a hand pressed to her cheek, whispering to herself in awe.

"Frilly hell..."

 


	40. Don't Touch Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So to end it on this note! But I hope you enjoyed this collection as much as I enjoyed writing it.

_Tags: Hollstein, Angst, Hurt/Comfort_

I can feel her looking at me from across the room. It's the kind of itchy feeling you get when you feel like you're being watched. I try not to flinch, but still I scratch at my elbow nervously and hunch over to rest my elbows on my knees. I inspect the indentations my legs make on the mattress as if they were ancient etchings into stone. 

I haven't been myself. I know this. When they pulled me up from the pit, after that day all I could feel was a burning rage toward Mother for what she did and what she made Laura do. Seeing Elle in that light... it had only brought up memories that were best left buried in a concrete coffin at the bottom of Mariana's Trench.  

Laura doesn't need to be on the receiving end of my pent up rage. We kissed... We kissed and it was amazing, and now I can't appreciate that because all I want to do is punch something.

Springs creak, and the next thing I know Laura's next to me, placing her hand on my shoulder and squeezing it. The small interaction gives me more comfort than I deserve, it feels like. I don't deserve anything when I could have prevented all of this. I shrug Laura's hand off, and keep my gaze down fearing the hurt that might be swimming in the girls's hot chocolate brown eyes at the dismissive action. 

Instead, not a moment later, two arms wrap around my torso tight. So tight that I can't move my arms in protest. 

"Laura..." I mutter, feeling my lip tremble pathetically. Vampires don't cry...

"Carmilla," she replies, as if she's warning me and forgiving me at the same time. Her arms only tighten when I start moving, but the relax when she realizes that I'm trying to hug her back. I snake my arms slowly around her, letting her pull me in tighter to rest her chin on my shoulder. 

Vampires don't cry... these wet streaks running down my face? Just allergies. That's what I tell myself up until the point when I breathe in shakily and three tears fall in quick succession, making me tense in Laura's arms at the realization that I'm crying. She starts rubbing my back slowly up and down. 

"I'm sorry." for being weak. for not being there. for running away. for lying. for... for... She presses a kiss to the side of my head and whispers softly into my ear.

"It's okay, Carmilla."

 


End file.
